The Math Lesson

[i_speak_softly]

"You are on the surface," Splinter said to his young sons, kneeling at the low table, "and you see one hundred enemy ninja. How many of them must each of you defeat in order to win the battle?"

"Twenty-five," Donatello replied immediately.

"No, one," said Michelangelo. "Then all the others will be afraid of us, and they'll run away!"

"One for each of you, maybe," said Raphael. "I want to fight the other ninety-seven!"

Splinter smiled at each of his sons. "And you?" he asked Leonardo. "What do you think?"

"I think that each of us has to beat fifty enemy ninja," he replied.

"How so?" Splinter asked.

"Because if we can see a hundred ninja, there must be at least a hundred more of them that we can't see," Leonardo answered.

Splinter nodded, satisfied, but he wouldn't say which answer was the best.