Swatantra, you got that ALMOST right, but still it means somewhat different than what you came up with. I mean my nick: Slackdemic. It is actually one of my very favorite words. It is a very young word that is not yet in dictionary. (And, I don't want to disclose its meaning now :P) You wrote: You have sold the goat for $10 and I have sold the chicken for $6. Since our dad told us to split the money in half, I cried and demanded $2 (dog) from you. Am I making sense here? Yes, I understand what you are saying, but I still can't comprehend the details associated with it! Why would you only cry for $2.00? Well, if I give you a dog, in the case you mentioned, you still have $8 and $10 and the money that was raised by selling those cows were not evenly distributed. I just think that the dog was given to make things even there...so that both of them would have EQUAL money. Guest4, I agree, the question is confusing, but "each cow gets sold for an amount that is equal to the total number of cows they had" should mean all of the cows were sold to the total (=initial) numbers of the cow they had. Now will it still make me a dumb, if I again say the total price is x^2? :)