Why were the 12 tables written

Jack lives on a farm and has a large backyard. the area of his rectangular backyard is of a square mile. if the width of the yard is of a mile, what fraction of a mile is the length of the rectangular backyard?

Adam drew two same size rectangles and divided them into the same number of equal parts. he shaded 1/3 of one rectangle and 1/4 of the other rectangle. what is the least number of parts into which both rectangles could be divided into?

Two cars which are 40 miles apart start moving simultaneously in the same direction with constant speeds. if the speed of the car which is behind is 56 mph and the speed of the other car is 48 mph, how many hours will it take for the car which is behind to catch up the car ahead of it?