INTELLECT SHARPENERS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22356, 29 February 1936, Page 5 (Supplement)

INTELLECT SHARPENERS

PRONUNCIATION PUZZLE In the lines given below the four spaces are to be filled with words, which look as if they should rhyme, judging by the way they are spelled, but their pronunciation makes them sound quite unlike one another. He heard the boasting his rivals made, To storm his castle which they now assailed But laughed——, for he was not afraid <: They would succeed, where foes more had failed. "I will not with you," he spoke again, "You waste more time the longer you remain." SUGGESTION FOR GARDENING When Mr. and Mrs. Simple were visiting their relatives in the country, they admired the garden' very much, and especially one rather large flowerbod. Their hostess was very pleased to show them her flowers, but their host merely produced a tape measure 120 feet long, and after pointing out that the shape of the bed was a rightangled triangle, he made them stretch the tape round three pegs placed at the corners. The ends just met, and each of the sides was seen to be a whole number of feet without fractions. When Mr. and Mrs. S. returned to town, they brought some flowers to be replanted in their own garden, but they felt that these could hardly be expected to grow, unless they were planted in a bed of similar shape. As their garden is much smaller than that of their country cousins, they had to use a tape measure only half as long as the other, but Mr. S. assured me that they observed the other conditions, about making the sides whole numbers of feet. I remarked that it sounded easy, they had only to take the measurements of the large flower bed, and halve all quantities. "Wrong," said Mr. S. sadly. "Then you took that overworked triangle having sides, 3, 4, 6 and multiplied all of them by 5 I suppose." "Wrong again," said Mrs. S., and it seemed to me that she spoke rather viciously. '"We have given you a much better problem than you deserve, but here is one clue for you. The two flower-beds have ono side of the same length." What are the dimensions of the two flower-beds described?. IN A DRAPERY STORE A customer entered a draper's shop, and said he had much money, and that he wished to* know how many yards could be bought with it. The salesman replied that he could supply so many yards of quality A, one more yard than that of quality B, one more again of C, one more again of D, and even one more again of E. The customer asked whether he could purchase N yards, and here he mentioned a number one moro than that offered to him of the quality E. The draper replied that this was impossible with materials which were priced at pence per yard without fractions of pence. But he added: "I have a quality F, which costs one penny per yard less than E costs, and another one G, which costs a penny per yard less than F. I can give you the N yards you require for your money, made up with numbers of yards of F and Q."

By C. J. WHEREFORE

How many yards did the man want to buy, how much money had he, and what were the prices' per yard ol: all seven qualities? AN ATTACHE CASE A leather case, used by the present writer for carrying papers and books, has three rectangular surfaces with the following areas. The top contains. 144 square inches, the front, where the lock is, contains 80 square inches, and v the end has 45 square inches. The problem is not merely to find the length, breadth and depth, which is too easy to be interesting, but to state the gen-? eral rulo by which these may 4>e determined. * ARMCHAIR PROBLEMS A party of 60 persons, consisting of men with their wives and children, had to cross a river at a late hour one evening. The ferryman expected to getinto trouble with his union for working after award hours, so ho imposed rather high prices, namely, 3d for a man, 2d for a woman, and Id for a child. They crossed in parties consisting of the same number of each description of passenger, and the ferryman received ten shillings altogether. There were no widows or widowers among them, and no man travelled in any boat-load with children that did not belong to him. How many were there of each description of passenger? When I entered my solicitor's office on February 29, he had just finished taking shillings out of a bag, and arranging them in piles of two sizes. He explained that, there were 700 shillings altogether, and that they represented a bequest made by an eccentric man many yqars ago, by which the inmates of a certain orphanage received presents every year on the anniversary of his birthday. Each boy got 14 shillings and each girl 11 shillings. I looked at the piles rather carelessly perhaps, and remarked that the number of boys and girls seemed to be nearly the same. I thought that the larger number, was three more than the other. "Count them again," was the answer 1 received.. So I did so, and made the difference two instead of three. "Yon are nearly right," said my solicitor, "but do not waste time with attempt. You can see what the difference must be, if you think about it. LAST WEEEI'S SOLUTIONS Holiday Clothes.—Suit, £8 8s; hat, £2 15s 8d; tie, 3s 6d. Word Change.—Mild, mind, mine, wine, wide, tide, rude. Two Cyclists.—The total was thought to be 196, but was found to be 189, which is the sum of the cubes of 4 and

Armchair Problem.—The amount paid for fruit remains unknown, but it does not affect the solution. The tram fare was fourpence and the tea cost one shilling.

Selling a Farm.—Quoting the highestpriced sheep first and the cheapest one? last, the numbers in the paddocks were 12, 48, 40 and 26, 29, 45 and 40, 10, 50. These are the only arrangements possible, so the fact that the number 40 is repeated neither complicates no) facilitates the solution. °- ••. • J -.-v.