A GARDEN PATH.

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 96, 27 April 1929, Page 29

A GARDEN PATH.

•Here is a little problem concerning mo laying down of a garden path that may interest the reader in a practical way as,well as providing-a useful .calculation. .' A.. plot of land, .oblong ' in. shape, and 36ft by 15i't, is to be planted with carnations in a central bed with a concrete path running round it of such uniform width that it will occupy exactly half the area of the whole plot. What width should the path be? Although the measurement of tho plot is given, in order to make an easy mathematical problem of it, there, is a simplo and practical method of determining the width of a path (under these conditions) of- any oblong plot without requiring to know the actual dimensions of tho .section.-. This method, 'which.'is quite useful to know, will appear' riq'xt Saturday/together with the solution.;'of j the problem now stated. ,>;two men and a boy. # Tjyo men undertook to'do J a certain job/.together for the sum of £4,:,agree-ing;that'on<3-of them could do it alone in five days, and: tho other in : eight days. But as the Easter holidays were close at hand,.giving them less than five days to carry it out, they decided'be-! ■fore '■ stprting\ to obtain tho help of a boy,' 'arid .■ the three ..working together started and completed the job in^'hree days! Can the.reader say how much of tho £4 the boy was entitled to, assuming that the two men worked up to,their respective capacities as stated. Although this is an absurdly easy calculation, tho question reached me from a sixth standard pupil who, in sending an answer (the correct one), says he cannot see how it is arrived at. A GOLF TOURNAMENT. It is not' always an easy matter to construct a plan of play, for; a tournament when, as is often the case, the number of competitors is large and the conditions' unusual. . But let .us take six players < only in a'golf tournament who are required to be "paired" under the,following three conditions, and try to Construct a \ table accordingly, forthe. reader who succeeds in accomplishing this in, say,, a quarter of an hour, will probably find 'that his mind has been fanly active duung the process. The conditions aic — 1. Every competitor shall pl.iy every other, once and only once. 2. Only three links to bo used, every player playrng twice on each of two of them, and once only on the other. ■■"■•'■ 3 All competitois play simultaneously in every iound, and in the last one eveiy one of the six plays on links for the first time. ; The six players may be called G, 0., L, 11.,I 1., E., E., respectively, and the tournament will, of couiso, consist of fifteen lounds, five on each link. Mr. JJ.^Craig sends this interesting problem, though his suggested* arrangement of pairs does not quite fuliil the conditions imposed. , AN.UNUSUAL BEQUEST. One fiequcntly leads of curious conditions and stipulations attached to charitable bequests, and one which recently'dame under notice was of an unusual type. Besides endowments to tho hospital and other similar institutions, one provision, was for the payment on every Christmas Day to poor families in \ the testator's neighbourhood of a certain sum to each man and woman, but with the curious condition that the number of. men and' women should be different at every distribution. But for the fact that both the

total" suri'i and the amount for each was specifically expressed in the will, a distribution could obviously be made ad infmitum, provided tho money held out, but that condition limits the number of annual disbursements; so lot hs make a little problem on,the point. Supposing the total annual sum to bo distributed was '£55, each man to receive 50s, and each woman 30s, on how many Christmas Days could tho dole be issued under the conditions ir^ated, if wo stipulato also 'tli.itt the rrambcr of women must always bo double that of '. the men? ''-. ' A TIME LIMIT. Here -is -a 'littlo problem which tho reader will no doubt readily solve mentally and without leaving the fireside. A contractor had an urgent drainage contract ;with ,a. 30 days'-\tiine limit, and put 15 men to work on the job. But at the end of 24 days the work was only.half completed, and to enable tho contract to bo fulfilled he placed extra men on, and-the full gang, working at tho same uniform .rate as the first 15 | men, completed the work in the specified time- exactly. How many extra men wefe;-put 'on? LAST WEEK'S SOLUTIONS. "Had Had," etc.—The passage would be rendered intelligible by making two sentences of it. Tom, although.) John: had had "Had had," had had "Had,"..;"Had^--Had" had had the approval ofrttiel'ihspector. Of course alternately,. Tom may. have written "Had had"*and not. John, The passage evidently;'occurred in a review of two students' examination papers. A Greengrocer's Weights.—l, 3, 9, 1271b weights would enable the dealer' to " carry ■ on.""." Two ;for ■ the .Armchair, Solver.—(l) Twicei'v-(2),.--A'sV'''lOHi.'February, 1960, will fall on-:^.Wednesday, the loan will become- due on Saturday, 3 days later.'Gold Coinage.—As 23.7 dollars at 4s-2d are equal to £4 18s 9d, sixteen ounces is the smallest quantity that eduld bfc converted into an even number of sovereigns; Gold and Silver Coins.—Ten of each denomination mentioned. ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS. 9 "Dublin."—The "Irish Mile" is Sow obsolete. It contained as many yards as-there are pounds in a- ton, viz., 2240. . ' .'.-"' "Compass."—"Boxing the compass" is naming the 32 points in their proper order. ■ . ';'...'. ' / C.J.M.—A description willmeet the case, though a diagram to scale would be better. ■ ■