"NUTS!"

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 138, 14 June 1930, Page 15

"NUTS!"

INTELLECT SHARPENERS All right* reterved. (By T. U Briton.)

Header* with ■ Uttle ingenuity t will find to Uaii column an abun- v d?n« store ot -entertainment and j amusement, and the solving ot the , problems should provide excellent mental exhilaration. While some of the "tmta" may appear harder ; than others. It will be fonnd thai i none will require a slsdge-bammer to crack them. <■ A TASMANIAN INVESTMENT. | A certain sum.of money was received * from Tasmania. recently by a small j syndicate of New Zealand investors } who had formed themselves into a com- ( pauy for tho.purpose of investment m ' an enterprise under the supervision o£ ( the-Tasmanian Government. The sum ' received after doducting cost of ex- ' change, etc., was divided equally be- j tween tho subscribers, and the question. , for the reader to decide from the few i details given is what amount was so divided and how many persons par- i ticipated. If there had been two j fewer shareholders than there were, j each would have received five pounds ] more than he actually did, but if there I had teen three more than the number that constituted the syndicate, each shareholder's dividend would have been five pounds less than it was. How much did each receive, and how many people divided the amount? The reader will probably answer this question after a few moments' mental calculation. SOMEWHAT BIBULOUS. B.C.S. writes: "a friend gave me some time ago a little problem which he said had 'stumped' a number of people, among whom ■■ an accountant, and 1 am sending it to you with the hope that it may find a place in your widely read column." Here, is the problem; A man took a drink at three different hotels, each cpsting one shilling. At the first hotel he had not enough money to pay for it, so a friend advanced him a sum equai to the amount that the man had. After paying for the drink he proceeded to hotel No. 2, but found again that he hac not sufficient money to pay for hu. drink, .and again a friend assisted him in precisely the game manner as No. 1 Samaritan had done, r At the third hotel the bibulous one was in the same financial predicament that he was in when visiting the two previous potion-dispensar- : ies, and, rightly or wrongly, another friend advanced him exactly as much as he had left. After paying for his ' third drink he had no' cash left, and i though he possibly belonged to a "school" which believes that one drink is a good thing, that two drinks are ' too many, but that three are not ! enough,, his further ventures are not re- '. corded. There are, however, sufficient : details hero for the reader to find how - much' money the man started with. B.C.S. does not say so, but it is pre- j sumed that the accountant and others : who. were_ "stumped", by .this simple i little poser treated it as an armchair ' problem, and scorned the aid of pen or pencil. The reader is asked not to 1 guess the answer, but to find it by ' mathematical process which will provide more mental recreation. ' CUCUMBERS AND BANANAS. If the reader decided to use pen or . pencil in solving the previous problem, here are two of the every-day variety i that are well suited for the armchair, i The price of cucumbers in the market : the other morning dropped tenpence per hundred from the previous day's quotation, which gave a ..purchaser of five shillings worth twenty more than he Would have received tho day before at the higher rate. How much per , hundred Were they on each day? • ! ; [:(2):. The price of bananas at the , same'time and place was such that tho seller 'would receive half tho number of sixpences. for sixteen dozen that ; he Would be able to give bananas for five pounds at the prico that day? How > much per dozen were they? ' TRAINING IN FOOTBALL. •.; A,-number, of footballers in'training last" season1 used bicycles ,for , the. pur- ■ posey'but ..this, year most, of these'.ath- ; leiea' have reverted to long-distance walking;and, running in order to get into condition. Several of those were met. 6m the road the other evening about twenty miles from their training quarters, having gone out in a lorry that distance; with tho intention' of walking"back.' Here's a little problem on the, incident. Avery takes; one. and a half hours longer than Bates to walk fifty-two and a quarter miles, and Cox, jogging along at exactly : double r the pace that AvCry walks, covers that mileage in four hours less than Bates. How far would Avery bo behind the latter at the end of two hours, walking at their respective speeds, assuming that they both started together? THE SPIDER AND THE PLY. A spider, a-fly, and a plain perfectly smo6th cylindrical drain-pipe form the "equipment" for this problem. The height of; the pipe,' which stood' on its ond,' is sixteen inches, tho circumference twenty-four, and inside the' pipe exactly' four, .inches from the top a fly had been fatally caught in the spider's web. The spider _Was ■ then resting on the outside surfaco of the pipe just four inches frOrn. the bottom, and exactly opposite to the fly,, that is to say, that if the spider moved perpendicularly up the pipe to a point four inches from the top it would have been at one end of a diameter, whose other end would ' be the point where the fly had been .caught. Being wingless; •'the spider ; could not fly-to its prey, and assuming I that it did, hot ; jump, but merely ; crawled, what is the shortest distance it'would have to travel to reach the :-ilyt ■■' ■ ''■ '/ -: : ■• ....-"■ LAST WEEK'S SOLUTIONS. Two Tailors.—The younger man must have been a faster worker than tho other by two to one, and therefore received £14 4s to the older tailor's £7 ■ 2s. In the Same Street.—Jones lived in No. 239 and Brown in No. 408, there being 169 and 288 houses on the respective sides of the street. Bed, White, and Blue.—With a total of 6000 in attendance, 1300 must have been holding all three tickets, red, white, and blue. Simple Multiplication.—l73B by 4; 483 by 12; and 297 by 18 are the only other examples in which tho figures in • the snm and answer in each case comprise the nine digits once only. By Methodical Trials.—£2 17s multii plied by Q gives' £17 2s, this being : the only'example under tho conditions expressed! '■ ; , .'■ '• ■ ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS. "Calculus."—The problem had to be simplified, being too technical. It appeared 3/5/30. "India."—(l) Delhi, the present capital, was the old capital of the Aloghul Empire. (2) Yes, in tho Punjab. Correspondents are requested to send their letters care of P.O. Box 1023,