Great Diamond: Long Division (1973)

[Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] Once upon a time in the kingdom of Boravia, a great war took place. For almost 50 years, the Waggles besieged the great fortress of their bitter enemies, the Dros. Once these two groups had lived together in peace and harmony, but an unfortunate incident occurred that was to change all that. It all started on a warm autumn day when a waggle and a drock met on their way to the harvest. They decided to take a shortcut through the woods where they came upon a cave with a strange light coming from it. Their curiosity got the better of them and they entered the cave. They emerged very excited and ran off. That evening, they returned to the cave. Working long into the night, they finally pulled a huge object out of the cave. Its reflected light was almost blinding, for the object was surely the largest diamond ever discovered. They hauled the great gem out of the woods, and the first village they came to was that of the Dros. They decided to leave the diamond there for the time being, while the waggle went to his village to announce the discovery. But when the excited Waggles arrived to help decide what would be done with the great gem, it appeared that a decision had already been made. For the first time in their history, there was tension between the Waggles and the DS. The next morning, the sun rose on an empty setting. But across the wood, in the direction of the Waggle village, bright rays of light could be seen. When the angry DS arrived at the Waggle village, they were told that the diamond would remain at its present sight, reflecting its beautiful light into the river. So, the DS lived quietly. But several nights later, The next morning, a waggle was sent to see if the great diamond was where they suspected it to be. As he approached the great gem, a guard stepped forward and said that the diamond was now a D shrine and that no waggles were allowed near it. From that day forward, things were never the same between the two villages. [Music] Well, after 50 years of this, the Waggles were bound to come up with something better than arrows. They did. The catapult. When the first rocks came flying over the wall, the DS knew that they were no longer safe. They also knew it would be only a matter of time before the Waggles would capture the great diamond. But if they could no longer keep the stone, they were determined not to let the Waggles get it either. And so with chisel and mallets, the great diamond was cut up into hundreds of small gems. So as the Waggles continued their bombardment, the Dros made plans for smuggling the small stones out of the fortress. There were 487 of them. But where could the DS hide them in case they were captured? Their pockets would surely be searched, and so would their hats. Then someone had an idea. They could hollow out the heels of their boots and hide the stones in them. What a perfect place. It was found that 16 stones would fit inside each heel. One person could carry 16 plus 16 or 32 diamonds in his boots. Next, they had to figure out how many drops were needed to carry all the diamonds past the waggles. Well, they had 487 stones. One person could carry 32 stones. That left 455 stones. Another person could carry 32 more stones. That left 423 stones. And one person wait someone said if one person carries 32 stones then 10 people can carry 320. That left 103 stones. And three people could carry 96 stones. That left seven stones. They would need one more person to carry the seven remaining stones. So they would need 1 + 1 + 10 + 3 or 15 people to carry 32 stones each and another person for the extra seven stones. So 15 drops put 32 stones into their heels, and the 16th put seven stones into her heel, and that night they left the fortress and sneaked past the Waggles into the safety of the nearby woods. The next morning, just as the Waggles were preparing their catapults, a white flag was seen waving from the top of the impregnable fortress. The DS had surrendered. The gates were opened and the victorious Waggles rushed in. The first thing they did was to look for the great diamond. They looked here. They looked there. They looked everywhere. They couldn't understand it. How could you hide something as large as the Great Diamond? Then the Wagle noticed the chisels and mallets. There was still diamond dust on them. In a flash, they realized what had happened to the great diamond. In the woods, the 16 DS could hear the angry cries of the Waggles. Then one of the DS spoke out. She said that they had prevented the Waggles from ever having the great diamond. But they also will never again behold its beauty. And if that wasn't enough, they had lost the war. She felt it was time for peace. So the DS and the Waggles signed a treaty and it was decided to divide the small stones amongst both villages. Now there were 27 dro families and 27 waggle families. That made 54 families altogether. There were 487 stones. If each family took 10 stones, they would need 540 stones. They didn't have that many. So each family would have to get less than 10 stones. If each family got five stones, there would be 5* 54 or 270 stones. That left 217 stones. Then if each family got three more stones, that would be 3 * 54 or 162 stones. There still left 55 stones to be divided up. If each family got one more stone, that would be 54 stones, which would leave one stone. The stones could be divided up so that each family got five + three + 1 or nine stones and there would be one stone left over. What should they do about the one stone? Well, the DS thought they should get it because they were the ones who had cut the great diamond into all those small stones. But the Waggles said that they should have it because they won the war. It seemed to be starting all over again when a drock stepped forward and said that they should place the last stone between the two villages to remind them of their greed and of the long war and the beautiful diamond they once had. And that is just what they did. [Music]