Can anyone please explain the how many beans make 5 or whatever it is?
I really don't understand it...

That's the problem HC. we accept it as fact but do we actually know? I think that they might make a very tiny bean salad.

isn't there a variant of it that goes ..

if you can tell me how many beans I'm holding I'll give you all 5 of them
?

Who cares?!?

How many beans make wind?

All I know is that one bean, two beans, one bean, and a half and a half a bean make 5. Am I right? :S

If you can find some way of joining the two halves together I suppose. Otherwise you would have four beans and two half beans. Would superglue do it?

Confused........ soemone explain to a poor befuddled pianist...

is it riddles we are doing?.... not very good at them!

I was always told "a bean a bean a bean and a half, half a bean and two beans"

No, not riddles old bean.

I don't understand either
Glad it's not just me, though.

Oh, I've just realised that makes 6 beans ...

I never was very good at maths!

(But that is definitely the rhyme I know, so the question must have been "how may beans make 6")

Doesn't that make 6?


...unless you're not counting half beans

How much jelly is in a jelly bean?

Maybe it's "a bean, a bean and a half, half a bean and two beans".

That makes 5 right?

slightly off topic but...............

As I was going to St Ives
I met a man with seven wives

Each wife had seven sacks
Each sack had seven cats
Each cat had seven kits

Kits, cats, sacks, wives
How many were going to St Ives?



*PG goes off to google beans puzzle*

Just you, Old Bean. They were heading the other way.

Where's yer bin?

I ain't bin nowhere!


Where's yer wheelie bin?


I weally ain't bin nowhere.

The answer, PG, is one...

And as for the beans - always makes me think of the scene in Blackadder II, where Blackadder is trying to teach Baldrick to add two beans and two beans..

no, where's yer WHEELIE bin

ah - I weally bin in bathroom.

Keep gueesing. I'll give you the definitive answer later (well according to my dad).

The thing is, there are no units associated with the integer in the question.
"How many beans make five?"
To which the response has to be - "How many beans make five what?"

Now, if it turns out the question is 'how many beans make five beans?', then the answer is clearly five.
If it's 'how many beans make five bean plants?' then the answer is 'anywhere between five and fifteen, probably, depending on weather conditions, germination rates, how many the mice steal, etc'.
If it's 'how many beans make five metres?' or 'five kilograms?' then you clearly become dependent on the length of the bean (for metres) or the weight/density of the bean (for kilograms).

You could, of course, confuse people by including a different unit in your response. 'How many beans make five kilograms?' you could - if you knew the density of the variety of the bean in question - reply with the volume of beans, rather than just a number.

Or to add complexity, you could get in to the realms of "How many beans make 5i ?"

Maizie, you clearly have time on your hands this morning.

Actually, it doesn't need units. It's a philosphical rather than arithmetic question.

Well the question should be clarified then. It should be "Philosphically, not arithmetically, how many beans make five?"

To quote my late father

Bean, Bean, Half a bean, Half a bean, Bean, Bean make five.

Or my late grandfather's answer:

A bean and a half and a bean and a half and half a bean and a bean and a half.

Well I bet my dad's bigger than your dad

He says it's 2 in each hand and 1 up your jumper.

Now for all those poor befuddled minds out there, "how many beans make five" is related to how smart you are (as in "he knows how many beans make five").

Definitely some beans.(See post #18)

I seem to think we've bean here before........






















(geddit?)

and I'm sure you all know how you get five elephants in a mini ?

Use a lot of materal...

two in the front, two in the back and one in the boot?

that's it !

Back to beans...

I always thought it was a bean, two beans, a bean and a half and half a bean.

I think it's bean allsorts through the years.

I think it's.....
a bean, a bean, a bean and a half, half a bean and a bean!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! = 5!!!!!