INTELLECT SHARPENERS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22226, 28 September 1935, Page 5 (Supplement)

INTELLECT SHARPENERS

GAMBLING PROBLEM Four men have been playing cards every evening in the hut' where they live. As they have been together for several weeks, it may bo regarded as evidence of the fact that they play for very small stakes, that the full amount of the money on the table is only eleven shillings and one penny. One of these men is penniless. Each of the others has the same number of coins, but each has coins of only one denomination, and different from those of his partners. What are these coins, and how many of them has each man?

ARMCHAIR PROBLEM Mrs. Motorist writes to her daughter at school. "We were not far away from you last Thursday, when we passed through Ditchwater. We were delayed in the township for nearly an hour, during which your sisters tried to entertain themselves at tho few shops there are. Your father and I stayed at tho hotel, where wo had lunched, and had a small bet on which of them would spend the most money. The one who did so was Mabel, who managed to dispose of half a crown. Jane and Ethel had only two-shilling pieces, and both of them brought back a few pence received as change. As it happened, Jane could show twopence more than Ethel, but the whole sum squandered was only six shillings and one penny, so that tho local shops did not make much out of our visit." The shops in Ditchwater do not deal in fractions of pence, and tho question is how many daughters have Mr. and Mrs. M? ANAGRAM AND RHYMING In tho lines given below the four spaces aro to bo filled with words composed of the same seven letters. The endings of the lines are in every case erroneous, so that the rhymes aro lost, and readers are invited to restore them by making tho necessary corrections. You tell me that the winter's gone. How cold it was we surely remember. Was it than the former one, Which chilled us both Inst year? I must my answer now, For though I called it very cold, To others tho seemed obvious. The mildest Reason wo have experienced. A faithful answer 1 would hope for. No man it more than myself. And since the truth I cannot express, I simply do not intend to attempt it. METHODICAL PROBLEM "Can you supply another problem. Miss Remington? I have just received a letter which remarks that your last one was not at all bad. That is quite a compliment really; you ought to sea what correspondents say sometimes." "Very well," sho replied. "The other day I heard of a boy and a girl, who received bicycles as presents from their grandfather" Tho price tickets had not

By C. J. WHEREFORE

been torn off, and these children were much amused when they found that their relative, who has a most methodical mind, had paid for each bicycle a number of pounds equal to the number of yeans in the age of the recipient. Now Mary already possessed a bicycle, but she did not want her grandfather to imagine that his gift; had not been appreciated, so she got rid of the old machine in order that the fact of its existence should never bo revealed, by selling it to a friend for one-third of the price of the new one. This caused George to remark that the methodical arrangement was now upset, because the value of her gift was now increased by the money thus acquired. To this Mary replied in an outspoken sisterly manner that their grandfather is net likely to know about it unless ho ; s told by some very indiscreet person, George himself, for example. But. if he should hear of it,- she could convince him in a mon. Nt how methodical and seemly everything still continues to be. The value of her bicycle with the bonu3 added to it is to the price of-the other, as the pittance received for the old one is to the difference between the two prices he has paid." I had to ask my friend to repeat this slowly, which sho did, and at the same timo she rose from the table preparing to depart. "But, wait a moment," 1 added, "you have not told me anything about the ages of the boy and girl." She stopped at the door and replied: "Did I really leave out all that? Well, one of them is three years older than the other. Now I suppose your own methodical mind can discover the prices which their grandfather paid for these bicycles." LAST WEEK'S SOLUTIONS Totalizator Stakes.—Tho winning number was Seven. Substitution Problem.—l 463 plus 3702 equals 5260. The book referred to is "Bleak House." Concerning Relatives.—There is only one reasonable approximation to the equality described Reading them in tho order, J, K, L, M, 0, P, the numbers taken are, 10, 15, 9,' 14, 7, 12. Thus J and L are the brothers, and iv and M are tho sisters. Charitable Fraud.—The problem is to find solutions in which the numbers of threepenny pieces aro multiples of four. There aro only two of these. The first is, 5 shillings, 76 threepenny pieces, pence, and tho second, 13 shillings, 32 threepenny pieces, 55 pence. Armchair Problems.—(l) The common difference must be either one penny or 11 pence, and the first is ruled out, because sho speaks of pence only in the plural. Thus the three sums are": £2 Is lid, £2 2s lOd and £2 3s 9d. (2) The value of a share in the deposit must be 12 shillings, because it is the difference of 20 and 8. A paid 48 down and 8 instalments, therefore the price of the bicycle is three times 56 shillings—namely, £8 Bs. C paid down only 24 shillings, so had 32 weekly instalments to pay.