INTELLECT SHARPENERS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23648, 4 November 1938, Page 3

INTELLECT SHARPENERS

Written for the Otago Daily Times By C. J. Wherefore Correspondence should be addressed to Box 1177 Wellington CHARADE As with previous puzzles of this description, the subdivision of the word into small parts may be criticised. but no liberties have been taken with the spelling. The FIRST revolved, and from it music came, A tenor voice SECOND it seemed to me, , I asked her did she know the singer s name, She told me it began with letter THIRD, And bade me guess. My ladys gramaphone Can play sweet' music, when she wills it so, , But records, which she’s not ashamed to own, Produce the vilest WHOLE that I know. SPORTING NEWS Five horses —A, B, C. D, and E—were starters for a race. They did not finish in alphabetical order; in fact not one of them occupied the place which he would have had if they had come in in that order. Thus, A was not second, nor was he last. One horse was two places ahead of the position he would have occupied, if the order had been alphabetical. No horse came in just ahead of the horse which would have been next to him, if they had been in alphabetical order. In what order did they pass the post? TWO SHORT PROBLEMS Mr Somebody sent his boy to the post office to obtain a supply of penny stamps. If the number of these required be represented by the letters ABC, the money paid for them becomes £C AB. How many stamps were purchased? Elizabeth showed me an Art Union ticket she had bought, of which the number may be written AECD for the purpose of the problem. She considers it an interesting numbei for several reasons. The sum of all four numerals makes her age, and again the product of A and D, with’ C added makes her age. The product of A and C equals the sum of B and D. These are her results, and I thought I might make two additions. The first is that CD equals three times AB. The other is that the sum of B, C and D make her age two years ago. But Elizabeth says I am giving the problem away by my suggested amendments. What is Elizabeth’s age? ARMCHAIR PROBLEM Mr Brown has two clocks on his mantelpiece, and they rarely, if ever, show the same time. Yesterday when I called on him, one clock showed two minutes past 10, and the other 10 minutes before the hour. I remarked that my watch was probably right, because it showed six minutes to 10, which is the mean of the times given by the clocks. His reply was: “ Your argument is all wrong. The error of one clock is five times as much as the error of the other. Now perhaps you can tell me the correct time.” What answer shall I give to Mr Brown? ..VAN. EXPLANATION PROMISED This is an old problem, but it has been the subject of an inquiry lately, so that there is a good reason for repeating it. A man borrowed as much money as he had, and then spent £2O. Again he borrowed as much as he had and spent another £2O, and he repeated the procedure a third time, which left him with no money. How much had he when he started? SOLUTIONS OF LAST WEEK’S PROBLEMS Anagram.—Bustle, subtle, sublet. Armchair Problems.—(l) On Thursday 88 miles, on Friday 80 miles. (2) B’s car is certainly not old; he bought it only two months ago, and A’s car is only 18 months old.

Postal Order.—The only factor of 885 which can be equal to the grandfather’s age is 59, The rest is easy arithmetic, showing that the girls are aged five and seven, and the boy three. Full Baskets. —The first clue is worthless, because any number which is a square would lead to the result described. But the professor’s amendment is not determinate, because the numbers 256, or 361, or 676 would all give the result he claims.

Slaughter.—Each of the four travellers ran over the same number of pigs. The hotel proprietor killed twice as many as any one of them. This is true, although it must be noted that the actual numbers of the pigs remains unknown.