INTELLECT SHARPENERS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22373, 21 September 1934, Page 3

INTELLECT SHARPENERS

Written for the Otago Daily Times. By C. J. Wherefore, [Correspondence should be addressed to Box 1177* Wellington.] ANAGRAM. The spaces left in the first and second verses are to be filled with words of the same seven letters. In the third verse the word required has a prefix. What follows is again composed of the same seven letters. Dear May. I’m amused by your letter. Our friends are exceedingly kind, But their cheering advice would hardly suffice , To cause one to alter one’s mind.» We have to suppose they are happily wed, « But really they ought to have known, We’ve never or remotely aspired To join in a.home of our own. I revel in bachelor quarters, And you have your feminine flat, But if we in state undivided, We both see the outcome of that. ' You’d find when you met me at breakfast, my dear, A mortal not looking his best, And my wish to adore would possess me no more, ■ If you were housekeeping-ly dressed. , It charnis me to meet you at luncheon, Or. go to a dance or a show? Platonic affection is our predilection, As friends well-informed ought to * know. And all things more fun comes our way a Than; their dull existence allows, So why can’t they see how much better are we Without any burdensome'vows? A TROUBLESOME PURCHASE, i When Mrs Dulldrd’s eldest girl walked . into the township one afternoon not long ago her mother told her to call, at the | little drapery store and inquire at what I price they could quote 32 yards of ..calico. ■The proprietor could supply this amount only by taking some of each of . three qualities in stock, and she handed' the inquirer a slip of paper-with the details ■written out in, full. Unfortunately, the girl lost this written statement on the way home, but she remembered that the three prices were 7d, 9d, and Is per yard; and that the total amount of money required was £l. She could not state how mahy yards of each variety were included, but her brother readily supplied this information. Can readers discover what it was? s v-.*--. GENTLEMEN OF FORTUNE. The crew of a pirate ship had acquired a large sum of money which was all - in ' sovereigns. This custom is that each member of the crew- is entitled to an equal share of , this plunder, but they do not take shillings or pence into account, so that the remainder, after dividing the total by the number of men on board, is given as bonuses to a few persons who are chosen by vote. In the present instance the sum to be allotted in this manner ' amounted to £IOO. The meeting held for the purpose of electing the individuals who were to receive this gratuity degenerated into a fight, in which 47 men were killed. The result was that the share of each survivor was increased by £127, and th* amount of money available, for bonuses i was diminished from £IOO to. £BB. Can readers. discover how many pirates there were and how many sovereigns they had to divide? ON SENTRY DUTY. Here is another non-mathematical problem devised in response to requests from several correspondents. An officer, in charge of an outpost guarded by native troops, had to put a sentry at a post every night. Four men , were used for this purpose, They relieved one another after short periods of duty. There were only-six men who could be used for this work, and their initials were S, E. A. R. C, and H. The officer had discovered that only one man out of the six was really reliable, and so he desired to have this .man on duty for as many nights as E’ossible. He did not explain this to is men, but preferred to tell them that he chose always four men whose initials made a good English’ word. He -was able to select men \by this method for the whole period during which he himself remained in command of the outpost, and the man whom he considered least unreliable served as many nights as it was possible to arrange for him. Two questions are asked: How many nights was this officer in charge of the outpost, and which wa s the man who served in the largest number of them? SUBSTITUTION PROBLEM. The following problem is elaborated from a < suggestion received from a correspondent. Numerals have to be written in place of the letters, so that the result. is a simple multiplication sum. No two letters' have/; the same numerical value. It also, gives a clue to the address from which the correspondent writes, and the elucidation of this is part of the problem. MOL :/v : . . v, v l s ji ME p ■; **,/■ P M S O 182 4 1 . ■* A SECOND-HAND CAR. A few days ago Mr Chance bought an old car very, cheaply at a sale. Next morning he started to drive it to his home at a considerable distance up country; and found it very slow and tiresome. At 12, mid-day, he stopped at a. repair shop and asked if any improve-, ment could be effected. The proprietor was not keen to spend time on an old and worn-out car, and his answer was not encouraging. “T can spare an hour on it, if you like,” he said, and “ then it, will go three miles per hour more quickly, thari at present, so that you will save,' an hour’s travelling on your way home.” Mr C. declined this offer, because, as lie -pointed but, waiting one hour to save one hour on his journey was no convenience to him. In fact, 'he would get home by sunset in either case. How far away from the repair shop is Mr C.’s home? • LAST WEEK’S SOLUTIONS. Traveller’s,Story.—104 shillings, 24eixpences, 124 threepenny pieces. Suburban Street.—Three brothers, one sister, and one feminine cousin, living in numbers 27, 29, 61, 60, and 44 respectively. - Tram Tickets.—There was only one person who had a twopenny ticket, and he left the tram at the stopping place before the terminus. . Problem in Words. —Take tbe words: Bull, calf, lamb, fowl, duck, mare, foal, pony. Then form: Full, moon, bulb, fade, farm, lock, claw, play. The solution of the alternative problem is: Fullback, cowardly, balloon, ample, muff. New Premises. —The number must be a multiple of 17 and one. less than a multiple of a hundred. The answer is 799, and the number of books received afterwards is 10, because 809 is a prime number. / V ■’ Station Master’s Problem. —The total number scored was 94, so it ig easy to see that the scores were - 25,’ 24, 23, and 22. The station master had the 22 after scoring 15 on 3 days, therefore his scores on the other 3 days were 3,2, 2, and Miss T. on those days had 5,4,. 4. But on Monday the total was 17,' of which the station master scored 5, therefore, each of the other three had 4. On Tuesday and Wednesday the station master and guard had 8, so that each of the other two scored 4, This completes Miss T.’s total, she bad 25, aud wag the winner.