INTELLECT SHARPENERS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23884, 11 August 1939, Page 3

INTELLECT SHARPENERS

By C, J. Wherefore

Written for the Otago Daily Times

AN INTELLIGENCE TEST A correspondent, writing from Dunedin, asks for an explanation of the following problem, which is said to have been given as an intelligence test. If that means that it was intended to be solved by mental arithmetic, I have to confess that I failed to give proof of the desirable brightness, but the problem is easy enough with paper and pencil. When I am as old as_ my father is now I shall be five times as old as my son is now. By that time .ny son will be eight years older than my present age. The sum of my father’s age and my own is now 100 years. How old is my son? , UNCERTAIN HISTORY "I had a number of shillings in my purse,” said Sir Walter Raleigh. “ 1 had to change some of them for pence, but not for anything smaller, then I paid away one-sixth, oneseventh, and one-eighth of my money, which came to 6s Id.” “ Oh, I have heard that one,” said Queen Elizabeth. “My royal father got it from Catherine Parr, or was it from Catherine Howard? I always find my stepmothers so confusing. But tell me this. Sir Walter.. You were left with 11 pence along with your remaining shillings. What fractions of the original sum would you have to pay out so that your purse would again hold naught but shillings? SALE PRICES Miss Flower received two birthday presents—a pair of stockings and a pair of shoes. The prices pencilled on the boxes had not been rubbed out, and she discovered that both purchases had been made at sales prices, The shoes cost 18s more than the stockings, and they had cost just three-sevenths of what the price of the shoes would have been, if this price had not been reduced by three shillings, because there was a sale at the shoe shop also. What were the prices paid for her presents? TWO SHORT PROBLEMS ”1 stayed the night at the Wayfarers Hotel," said Smith. “ The numbers in the columns for shillings and pence -in the charge for my room, when interchanged, make the amount I had to pay for my breakfast. And I had to pay away in tips exactly the same amount that I paid for breakfast, so that my whole expenditure came to £ 1." What were these charges? John apd Eva were examining a pack of cards, to see if any were missing. They cut the pack, and John took the larger part, then out of them he gave Eva, who had taken the others, exactly as many cards as she, had. She returned to him as many as he had retained. The result was that one of these individuals had 32 and the other 20. What numbers did each one pick up, as the result of cutting the pack? NON-MATHEMATICAL' In the words, Period, Sperms, Expert, Proper, the group of letters, Per, moves across from beginning to end by one step at a time. These contain only six letters. The problem now proposed is to form similar sequences of words of seven letters, also of eight and nine letters. For .•• example, the ’ eight-letter sequence could begin with Periodic, followed by Operetta, This is really an easy puzzle, because the particle per is used in the construction of a larger number of English words, having a variety of derivations, which are of interest on their own account. SOLUTIONS TO LAST WEEK’S PROBLEMS Penny Missing.—The amounts were 11s lid, 11s, and 7s. Raid on Club.—The numbers were 12, the square of 13, and the cube of 14, so that Miss S. had £l2 3s 9d, which is exactly 39 times the other amount. Short Problem.—Twelve miles. This is a quadratic equation really, but simple enough to be solved without such elaborate calculations.

Bequest.—She was believed to be 24 years of age, and the result of the erroneous calculation was £576. She was really 26 years old, and the correct addition was £676. Non-Mathematical.—The words .re Details, Reject, Conclusive. The word formed from the fragments is Detective, and it is actually given in the extra line, as a stimulant to the imagination of solvers. Armchair Problem. The 10 oranges cost the same amount as a dozen eggs, so that it is evident that a dozen eggs were handed back. The rest is easy. At first she had 18 eggs, 9 oranges, then she had 6 eggs. 19 oranges.