INTELLECT SHARPENERS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22295, 22 June 1934, Page 4

INTELLECT SHARPENERS

Written for the Otago Daily Times. By C. J. Wherefore. [Correspondence should be addressed to Box 1177, Wellington.] AN ARMCHAIR PROBLEM. Mr Early lives in a house near enough to a clock to hear it striking the hours. One night this clock stopped, and Mr Early, while still in bed next morning, heard the result of the caretaker setting the hands and re-starting the clock. He heard it strike 27 times. About a quarter of an hour later, the clock, which was now keeping correct time, struck the hour for which Mr Early was waiting, and he at once got out of bed. At what time does Mr Early rise? ANOTHER PROBLEM IN AGES. A grandfather writes as follows: "When my son is as old as I am and half as old again, his age will be 20 years more than the sum of the present ages of his wife, his daughter, and himself. Five years ago the sum of ages of my son and his wife was just equal to my own age, and in two years from today I shall be 10 times as old as my grand-daughter." Can readers say how old the writer Avas at the time his granddaughter was born? WORD CHANGES. In the lines written, below the spaces are' to be filled with a series of words, each of which differs from the one preceding it by One letter, making the last word quite unlike the first, and with an entirely different meaning. I had my little table where I'd often sat before, A solitary without a mate, To —— it seem more clear the hour was shortly after four, I sipped my tea, and was on my plate. Thus I .was killing time, in you do not understand, And so I ; my eyes across the room, And there I saw her sitting and holding in her hand A wealth of. bonny heather all in bloom. I felt compelled to speak to her, I had to walk across, 1 wished to see her treasure closer still, - . And tell her just how many years I counted as a loss, ■• Since 1 saw the heather on the , hill. And meanwhile some young damsel, ..not unkindly, I suppose. Just, cleared away the things she'd . served to me, I'm sure that in the land I know where , v heather really grows, No would dispossess me of my tea'. .■•■■'',..

A LESSON IN ARITHMETIC. A school master asked his • pupils to resolve 2183 into factors,. and they were unable to do so. Then he set them the following exercise, and told them that it gave a clue to the factors required;' A man went into a shop with a ten pound note,* and spent 18 shillings and one penny in the purchase of seven articles at the same price. Then he bought a number of articles of which the price was'sixpence more than that of the seven he had just purchased, and this used up all that was left of his ten pound \note. Now, ■he asked them, what are the factors of 2183? •■-•-.;'

• A QUESTION OF PROBABILITIES. Professor Aftermath had to pay the sum of'seven shillings ancT sixpence, and as he had no ..silver, he borrowed the money from his wife. .She had only halfcrowns in her purse, some of which were British and .some of the New Zealand currency. The three which she. took out were- found to be two British coins and one New Zealand one. Afterwards, when she', told .her husband, how much money "she had, he remarked that, if he had known that he would have expected the three "coins he 'actually received, because the chances of the three halfcrowne coming out of her purse in the order stated were 6 to 4 in favour of the event. Can readers say how many halfcrowns of each variety the lady had in her purse? SIX SHOPS. As you walk tip the principal street of a certain township you will pass on your left the shops of. Kenneth, Lance, Martha, Nicholas, Paul and Robert, in the order given. Their trades are those of grocer, baker, butcher, stationer, draper, and haidresser, but that is not the order in which you pass them. ■ Martha is a young unmarried woman, but all the others are. men. Kenneth and Lance are brothers, and tbey assist one another in several ways. There is one shon between the stationer's and • the butcher's, and again there is one between the hairdresser's and the stationer's. The draper lives alone in a room behind the shop, and when he' goes to the baker-to obtain a loaf he has to pass three shops,, including that of the stationer, with whom he usually stays to talk, as they are on friendly terms.. The butcher and baker have one delivery van between them. When loading up it is halted. carefully midway between the two doors, so that each of. these tradesmen has, the same distance, equally short, to carry out his goods for' delivery. The problem is to find which of each of the persons flamed above is the proprietor of each of the six shops described. SOLUTIONS TO LAST WEEK'S PROBLEMS. Anagram.—Regal, large, glare. Library Problem. —930 books were borrowed. Sale Yard—26o sheep at 22 shillings per head. Aid to Memory.—There are at least two solutions;, 359 and 386, bo that nothing except memorising the correct number would help him. A Lost Purse. —The coins were halfcrowns, shillings, sixpences, and threepenny pieces, and there were 13 of each. When another threepence is added the value of the contents becomes 666 pence. Armchair Problem.—Mr M. with only 97 minutes' travelling time, must have gone by A and B. Mrs P., with 123 minutes, must have travelled by B and C. Therefore, Mrs, M. must have gone by A and C, arid as she was with her husband in the morning in A, her return journey was in C. Subtract 40 minutes from 115, the remainder, 75, is the time of C on return journey of 20 miles, winch makes the velocity. 16 miles per hour. The velocity in contrary direction is four miles faster, which makes it 20 m.p.n.