A peacock on a pillar spots a snake gliding home — where do they meet?
A snake's hole sits at the base of a pillar 9 cubits tall, with a peacock perched on top. The peacock spots the snake at a distance from the hole equal to three times the pillar's height, and both the snake and the swooping peacock travel in a straight line, covering exactly the same distance before they meet. How far from the hole do they meet?
Reveal the answer
12 cubits from the hole. Setting the meeting point x cubits from the hole, the peacock's diagonal flight (by the Pythagorean theorem) covers the square root of 9 squared plus x squared, and the snake's straight retreat covers 27 minus x; setting those two distances equal gives x = 12. It's one of the best-loved problems from Bhaskara II's 12th-century treatise Lilavati, which wrapped its mathematics inside poetic riddles about everyday and natural scenes.