"NUTS!"

Evening Post, Volume CXXII, Issue 106, 31 October 1936, Page 6

"NUTS!"

Intellect Sharpeners All rights reserved (By C. J. Wherefore)

Readers with a'little inflenuity will find In this column an abundant stvro of entertainment and amusement, and the solvlni of the problems should provide excellent m»nta[ exhilaration: While some of the "nuts" may appear harder than others, it will b« found that none will require a,sled|B--hammer to crack them. Address corresnondwee. to P.O. Box (177. Wellljiaton.

ANOTHER EXPLANATION. A correspondent, writing from Wei* -lingtpn; asks for an explanation of hour .. the solution of another old problem is derived:." The story is that a man wasasked how much he had paid for some oranges, and would only reply -that he had beaten down the price'per . hundred originally demanded by four-. pence, and that this made a difference of five oranges in every ten shillings'- ■ worth. The problem is solved readily by putting N pence equal to. the price \ demanded at first, and multiplying the '- number of pence in ten shillings by 100, which gives 12,000. Write down two fractions having this numerator and let their denominators be N, and N minus 4. When the difference of these' is pu': equal to 5, it is very obviou3 that N equals 100, so that the equation need not be worked put in full. Therefore, the answer is that he paid 8s " ; after being asked, to pay 8s 4di .-Now, " by way of getting a new problem out of the old material, how many oranges would have been added to his ten shillings' worth if he had obtained a rebate, of 2s Id 'on each 100 purchased? A NON-MATHEMATIbAL PUZZLE. In the lines given below the three ■ spaces are to be filled with words which differ from one another by only". one letter. The letter which has to.be changed is a consonant, and. occurs, always at the same place amoijg the: other letters. . •■■■..■•• : Dear life-long friend, I sometimes wonder whether . - . ■ • ' You think, like me, of what we can't " Those years, when boyishly we played' together, . . ' ■ Old, memories of which we must And since those days it may with truth ;■ be. stated, t No time have we misspent nor wasted now; . . . '...'. .. ... We still —, though grey and,anti- ; ~ quated. . . . . . ■ , The cheerful friends we've always been somehow. ■'■ THE SHAREBROKER'S PROBLEM. The firm of TiggandCrimple, stockbrokers, had received a letter from a client, which was not very legibly . written or clearly expressed. The',in-structions-.seemed to be . that they should invest £270 in buying 100 shares in some securities;" which may be called A, B, and' C, for-the purpose of the problem. Now, the quotations for. these in the order given were:--£2 135,. £2 17s, and £3 Is, and at the ; . time.-, they could be obtained only in lots of five shares. Mr. T. at once said that there was only one way of 100 of these shares for £270, but Mr. C. on his way to the exchange was pleased with himself in finding that there .was an alternative solution, and-decided to ■ adopt it in preference to the other. But the plans of both: partners were upset when they fpurid that the company- , called -C- had gone jnto liquidation;, so ; that they,had, 'to,.makp "thehr .purchases.,of lots .of ;five of ttie A"and B shar.esV only. How did they do this; and how - had they previously intended to do it*: IN AIT» OF A y GOOli CAT[JSE, At a bazaar in aid of the funds ot a church, the vicar's daughter, Mary, was in charge of one of the stalls,, and; she had intended that all articles on it should cost one shilling. Jn this.. she . was overruled by her assistant, Sap-phira,-the daughter of a land and " estate agent. She considered it was' better business to have two prices, and she marked some of them, at lid aridthe others at Is sd. Which of these is really the better saleswoman is not; clear, for it was found that during the', day each of them had spent one hour ■ in full charge of the stall, while the ■ other was absent, and they-had done--equally good business ; during these periods. Each one had sold £2 worth, of goods, including articles' at both [ prices, although Mary sold more of the higher-priced articles than her partner. When the two fathers heardr of this remarkable experience, they suggested that the problem of which, is the better manager could be solved ' if each daughter would take" full charge, for another half-hour. This,' however, did riot lead to any result^ for at'the end of the hour the income was again £2, and each of the twoladies had taken just £1, selling-goods ' at both prices. How many articles did " they sell in the whole hour,arid half, hour periods? ' " 7 , '.' MORE HOMEWORK. , "I have another rather hard problem for my homework, Grandfather. Somebody rang up a florist, and wanted a ■ lot of roses for decorating a room, and the answer was that the 'number ,- which could be supplied would cost £3 .; Is 5d." "Well, that is-easy enough, you can find the number of roses and. the price, when you have reduced that sum of money to pence. When I was a boy of your age we did not-call that a hard problem/ But here the; grandson interrupted: "That is only the easy half of the problem. The figures which I do not use in that part are said; . to be the clue .to the quotation, given, by another florist in which the number of roses and the price of each are as nearly equal as it is possible for, them to be." What are the answers to both parts of the problem? ■ ■ - ' SOLUTIONS. Anagram.—Eastern, earnest, nearest.. Monthly Account— £i 0 lls-.lOd is : equivalent to 6s lOd per day for 31 •days. .. - ' ■■■ ;.--.- : " . :'. ' - Information.—There is no solution, ■ unless the board shows two distances of five miles, but this is not contrary1 to specification. The other three are 6, 10, and 12 miles/ Combination Lock.—The first letters in each line make "Dovetail." The wordsused previously are "Warriors, Pror mises, Drummers, Enormous." As /an additional problem, there are at least.. two other words, which can be set on . the combination. - Armchair Problems.—(l) The clue is that A must have 7 times 5, that: is • 35d. Therefore B has 21d, and C has 18d, which answers the question about the price of the seats. These three added together make 6s 2d; and as 12s is required, D must have 5s lOd. (2) This is easy. The land cost £175' and the house £425. "'" ; ,• .."...;'; .' ,