INTELLECT SHARPENERS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23896, 25 August 1939, Page 3

INTELLECT SHARPENERS

Written for the Otago Daily Times By C. S. Wherefore ANAGRAM In the lines given below the three spaces are to be filled with words composed of the same letters. Who spilled the paint we never knew, Some careless fellow passing by. ’Twas my beloved lady, who Stepped from her car, as others do, r The quite spoiled her shoe, , , . We both spoke angry words, ’tis true, No is she, no hero I. SMALL CHANGE Miss Aftermath and Miss Liverish were killing time, while their employers were not requiring their secretarial assistance, and they spent part of this spare time in a tea shop. They were both rather short of cash, having only 16s 2d altogether —most of it in small change. When they paid for their tea, they thought it a good opportunity to get rid of some of this inconveniently small money. The charge was one shilling each, but Miss A., who had the heavier purse (or it may have been a handbag), handed over one-ninth of what U contained, and Miss L. paid one-seventh of what she was carrying. How much did each pay? SHORT PROBLEM Mr and Mrs A have no children of their own, but when they went to the Winter Show he took a nephew with him, and she was equally gracious to one of her nieces. Now his age is just seven times as great as that of the nephew, and hers is exactly nine times as great as that of the niece. Mr A is two years older than his wife. No fractions of years are admitted to any part of this problem. By what amount does the boy’s age exceed that of the girl? OLD CHINA Mr A had a very rare and valuable specimen of China, which Mr B wanted to buy. He had offered a certain price for it, but the owner said he wanted nine times as much. Mr A then increased his offer by £3, but Mr B’s reply was that he wanted four times as much. Then Mr A continued to raise his offers by bids of £3, until finally Mr A let him have the vase, although he told me afterwards that the price he received was slightly less than that which he had in his mind when they started to bargain. He mentioned the amount which he had lost, as the result of what he considered to be his generosity. How much was it? MAINLY FINANCIAL Miss Purple, the overworked secretary and treasurer of our literary club, had to report a deficit on the year’s transactions. She pointed out that there was also a regrettable reduction in the number of members; in fact, thifc was the real cause of the financial difficulty, because the amount of the subscriptions thus lost was exactly equal to the sum rer quired to make both ends meet. We were not as unfortunate, however, as we expected. The Society for the Liquidation of Deficit Balances made us a grant, and then one of our patrons gave us a cheque, which was actually 12J per cent, more than the society’s assistance. A second donation, an anonymous s one, was even larger, being actually equal to the amount of the grant multiplied by one and five-sixths. These three sums just sufficed to make up the deficiency reported. As lam not a member, I cannot inform readers whether the subscription is £1 or a guinea, but perhaps they can find this out, and can also say by how many individuals the list of members has diminished. CONCERNING CIGARETTES Three young women, Mary, Nora, and Pamela, sharing a flat, had come to the conclusion that they were smoking a great many cigarettes. They did not propose to give up the'habit, but, as a deterrent, they decided that each one after disposing of a cigarette, should deposit one penny in a box provided to hold these fines. At the end of a week only 14 pence had been collected, which obviously makes an average of only two cigarettes per day. Had they paid their full indebtedness, the amount would have been four shillings, which is equally obviously an average of 16d from each defaulter. Now, none of them had allowed a day to pass without at least one indulgence. Mary had paid for one cigarette in every three, Nora for one in every four.t and Pamela for one in every five. How many qigarettes had each one smoked during the week? 7 SOLUTIONS OF LAST WEEK’SPROBLEMS In Album.—July 23; 23 times 18 is 414, and 23 times 25 is 575. both “looking glass numbers.” Non-mathematical. —This is another indeterminate problem. Her name was either Beatrice or Margaret. Wintry Weather.—She reported 61 orders at average price 15s, and 46 at 13s. The 61 was really the number of them at 13s. and there were'4B, not 46, at 15s. Armchair Problem.—lt is evident that one man charges a shilling more than the other, therefore, the cabby demands 2s 2d, and the taxi-driver Books. —Yes, there are two solutions. (1) The numbers of the pages were 150 and 2, when the books changed hands, and each man read two pages, (2) The numbers were 25 and 12, and each of them read seven pages. I do not think there are any more solutions; at any rate I cannot find any.