INTELLECT SHARPENERS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19958, 27 November 1926, Page 25

INTELLECT SHARPENERS.

Special to the Otago Daily Times. By T. L. Bbito.n. Readers with a little ingenuity will I find in this column an abundant store ' of entertainment and amusement, and the solving of the problems should provide excellent mental exhilaration. While some of the “nuts” may appear harder than others, it will be found that none will require a sledgehammer to crack them. A NEW PARTNER. A firm of New Zealand kinematograph ■ showmen, by name Corbin and Wright, decided quite recently to take in Sir Lindsay as a third partner. In the original firm of Corbin and Wright there was not an equal partnership, as the former had one and a-half times as much money invested in the business as Mr Wright. The new partner is to invest £2500 to come in, on equal terms, with the original members, the business not being extended by this amount, but the sum being divided between the two proprietors. How should Mr Lindsay’s capital of £2500 be equitably divided between Mr Corbin and Mr Wright ? A LEGAITNUT. A local law practitioner whose name is seldom, if ever seen in the newspaper law reports, but who has a large chamber practice, is very keen on problems, and is never happier when confronted with a good legal “nut”—one harder than usual. He had a will to draw up recently for a client who was on his death bed. At this time the sick man’s wife was about to present him with their first child. In the will the client settled two-thirds of his estate upon his son if the new arrival should be a boy, and one-third on his wife. But if the child should be a girl, then two-thirds of the estate should , go to the mother and one-third to the daughter. Two days afer the client’s death, twins were born, a boy and a girl. How should the estate be divided in strict accordance with the spirit and intention of the dead man’s will? The lawyer’s interpretation was approved by the court as the correct one. A STRANGE CUSTOM. In some countries, it is said, a dead man may bo married, provided the woman had been affianced not less than 12 months, and that the ceremony bo performed within 48 hours after death. It will probably bo considered an outrageous custom to many people, yet here in New Zealand, although we do not marry dead people, it is legally possible for a man to marry his widow’s sister. When fix«t it came to rny knowledge that this was so, I confess to a little perplexity, but having looked into the matter I find that this is a legal procedure, both civilly and ecclesiastically. The full explanation will appear next Saturday. In the meantime it is worth pondering over. A MENTAL PROBLEM. An apparent anomaly in mathematics, which has no doubt occurred to many people, is that two positive quantities may be multiplied by one another, and give a product less in quantity than either of those multiplied. For example, one-half

multiplied by one-quarter is one-eighth It is a little confusion, but a classifriend thinks that an easy way out of the difficulty is to regard the word “multiply” as a misnomer when applied to fractions. For the present it may be left at that. But the problem I set out to write is a simple one in mental arithmetic, the answer to which is not what it may seem. It becomes a problem only when pen, pencil, and paper are barred, and solvers are requested to note. I bought a box of bon-bons for 7s 9d, and the box being an artistic one cost Zs 3s more than the sweets. How much did the bon-bons cost? A CURIOUS QUESTION. As an “intellect sharpener’ 1 does not require to be one based on mathematics only, in order to provide an efficient mental exercise, here is a little question that will give readers something to think and ponder over. Take seven-tenths from five so that four will remain. We know that mathematicians still insist that tentenths taken from five will leave four, yet it can be shown quite as unmistakably and (without the aid ofEinstens’ “nothing-being-absolute” theory), that seven-tenths taken from five will show the same result. Solutions will appear next Saturday together with some fresh intellect sharpeners. Readers are requested not to send in their solutions, unless these are specially asked for, but to keep them for comparisons with those published on the Saturday following the publication of the problems.