"COUNTING THEM OUT."

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 73, 30 March 1929, Page 17

"COUNTING THEM OUT."

Here is a little problem puzzle that will amuso .as well as instruct the reader who succeeds in solving it. Take twenty-one cards or counters numbered from one up consecutively and place them in the following order in. a circle, viz.: 1, 14, 15, 17, 3, 7, 13, 6, 20, 2, 19, 21, 5, 18, 8, 11, 16, 9, 12, 4, and 10. StaTt at any number calling it one and count them, one, two, three, four, etc., in. tho direction, that tho hands of a clock move, and when.your count agrees with the number of the card it should be removed, and the count continued, starting at the next card calling it one as at first, until the whole have been "counted out." In the arrangement given above, it is not possible to "count out" the whole of them in twenty-one such counts, but by changing the positions very slightly the feat can be accomplished. To illustrate the method to be followed let us start at 20 calling it one, then "five" would be the first card to bo removed and another start made at 18 calling it.one and so, on.