A WHALE-OHASER'S MAST.

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 108, 2 November 1929, Page 31

A WHALE-OHASER'S MAST.

■ Two"things likely to "strike" the eye of a,. Visitor to the whaling ship Kosmos, ana .the chasers, is the levelness;'of the former's main deckhand" the, vertical position . of the chasers' masts. Let us assume that the chaser's - aeeks are also perfectly level, and that ,; one of the vertical masts has a fifty- "■' two - feet rigid stay running from a '; point two feet from its. top, which is iixed to a ring-bolt on the for'ard deck, -and another similar stay eighty feet in length fixed at the same spot on the mast also secured to a ring-bolt on the . aft' deck. It will be assumed for problem, purposes that the chaser's deck run's the whole length of the vessel, and is perfectly level as stated, also that the lengths of the stays given arc ..." from the fixed point on the mast to the ;:: deck, ignoring the diameters of the ■■£. tingboltsy which are exactly eighty- :■!' four feet apart. Prom these few :.V details can the reader say what ia the i height."of the mast from the deck, the ~ calculation necessary being a useful,, yet very simple one? HIS WEEKLY WAGE. -In the early-spring a poultry farmer ;. had an .output of three hundred and -twenty/dozen f»g<js per week, the average Cniarket price during that period /being two shillings per dozen. Amongst :;T other help, he engaged a man at a fixed ;y~ weekly- wage, but when the price of \Y :eggs: went down to one and three pence ■;~; per:dozen. in the summer with less than a-So-per cent, increase in the output, Kit was. agreed that the man's remuneration phnjild be 10 per cent, of the output aViE« price shelved by tho farmer. This arrangement was alright from .the en%>ioyer's standpoint, but Wrien towards Easter eggs fetched about~ double the price, the prospects for him ■were not so bright. Assuming that in the week prior.to Easter the price was ; higher than at any period of the season, and that after deducting 10 per cent. : of the output the farmer had two hundred and fifty-two dozen for himself, the man receiving one pound more by selling, his quota at market price than his first fixed weekly wage, what was the wage of the man when first put on? ■;'- Unless very careful the reader may be . 'caught with this little question. "A SNAIL'S CLIMB. Reversing the conditions of the old problem of.a snail climbing the wall, tho question requiring t,o be answered here is not "what was the time occupied by the spiral-shell mollusc in ■.'. reaching the top, but how high was the --wall,-and also a contingent query. "When ifrst seen the suail was exactly . fifteen inches from the ground, head- • ing straight for the top, climbing and slipping back alternately, but maintaining a direct line. It ascended two n ' feet and slipped down'one foot iv alternate seconds, carrying on in this way until it reached the top, which frpni the :: time it was first observed. What height was the wall, and where was' the i snail at the fifth second? The reader ?. trill'get more amusement out of this little problem if he will elect to solve it without pen or pencil. . SEVEN AT DINNER. Two families, one comprising the parents and one boy, the other the par- ; ents and two boys, were seated at lunch at a round table, their positions, reading clockwise being Grey (G.), Simp- : son's wife (S.W.), Simpson (S.), Harry : (H.), Charles (C), Jack (J.), and : Grey's wife (G.W.). It will be noted , ; both Grey and: Simpson each had his ;*.own wife as Tiis right-hand neighbour. if:At the following two meals, however, . Bj one was to have the same person ]i sitting beside him or her, an arrange- ■; ment that was quite easy to make, but ' as Grey occupied, the same seat at each ■■( three meals, and desired that Simp--1 eon's wife' should sit as close aa pos-t-Bible to him at the next two meals, but j observing the stipulation set out, and ~ also that his own wife should occupy ; B seat as far from him as those conditions 'would allow, can the reader ar- ' frange the sittings at the two subse- '; quent meats," so that no one had the ; person as his immediate neigh--2 pour on more than one occasion? •1 , A SIMPLE ALLOCATION. , ' ''. A gentleman had a siim of money in | his pocket all in silver, the amount "being less than one pound. It bappen- ■•• ed to be one of those days on which the .civic authorities-permit street collee:'.tions in support of the funds of a de- • serving object, arid on the way to his ;. office he-encountered three holders of '■money boxes. To the first collector lie gave exactly half of the amount he r had, and-af the same time bought a : sporting , newspaper costing threepence. ...'.". In 'the second box he again •gave half the sum that he had, and at the same time bought a buttonhole of" violets for' sixpence. The third collector, had her stand just outside the post office, and as he passed in to buy some stamps he again placed in the box exactly half the money he bad left. Now, if the final transaction before reaching his office was tho jrarehase of nine ■ penny stamps, after which he had only threepence left, can the reader calculate how much the gentle- . .man had in his pocket at first?