MYSTERY AND MAGIC

Taranaki Daily News, 18 December 1929, Page 15 (Supplement)

MYSTERY AND MAGIC

(Ry

Henry E. Dudeney.)

THE EHTAMQLED SCISSORS.

Mrs. Daniels ; here fetched a large pair of scissors, and,, producing a lo.ng piece of stout cord, she .wound it'ln and out .in ,the mann.er shown in our Illustration.

‘‘See if you can take off the scissors;’ she said, '‘‘Withotil my letting go’the ends of the string.” She had allowed them plenty of room for their manipulations, and one after another of them tried to disentangle the scissors. In the end she had to show them how it Is done. The reader, in his attempts, is cautioned to allow sufficient length of string and to be very careful to avoid twists and tangles, or he will get it in a hopeless muddle. Even when he knows how to do it, the performance requires ‘ the exercise of some little care. THE SUBSCRIPTION FUAZLK. “As we have got into puzzling arithmetic,” said Daniels, "1 should like to see what you can make of this. Men in ay trade were getting up a subscription—no matter for what pur-pose—-and six hotelkeepers gave £lO each. As I was particularly interested In the cause, I gave £3- more than the average of the seven of us. Now, can you tell me how much I subscribed?” This did not give them much trouble.

THE CLOCK. “I have noticed,” said Andrews, “that some clockmakers are very careless in using two hands so very much alike that they are hardly distinguishable. In fact, 1 once stopped at an hotel where a clock had two 4 hands exactly alike. Now, if this clock was set going at noon, when would be. the first time that it would be Impossible, by reason of the similarity of the hands, to be sure of the correct time?” “I suppose," said Carew, “that you accept the convention used in ail these clock puzzles that it is possible to indicate fractions of seconds?” Andrews agreed, and Benson, who was by far the best arithmetician in the company, gave them the correct answer.

UPSIDE DOWN. “Herb is an amusing little thing 1 was shown the other clay,” said Mrs Daniels. “If. you write the word “bung” and turn it upside-down it reads just the same. Can you find a word of five letters in ordinary writing, without any capital letters, that will do the same?” _ . Nobody succeeded in solving this .little puzzle so Mrs. Daniels had to show them the answer. 4 ■ SOLUTIONS. . THE SIX MATCHES. The illustration shows the simple way to place the six matches so that

every match somewhere touches every other match. j ;r-4 HORSES ANI> BULLOCKS. The man must . have bought 252 horses for 344 s apiece, and 327 bullocks at 265 s apiece, and the horses . would then cost him in all 33s more than the bullocks. THE SUBSCRIPTION PUZZLE. Daniels subscribed £l3 Ms. Add this to the £6O from the other six men and we get £73 10s. The average is therefore one seventh of this —£10 10s. So that Daniels subscribed, as he said, £3 more than this average. f, THE ENTANGLED SCISSORS. The puzzle is solved by working that loop near the middle of the scissors backwards along the double cord. First Blacken the string' throughout co ■’ aoilOS-B tre

as to bring the scissors near the hand Of the person holding the ends. You must be careful to make the loop folrow the double cord on its course in and out until that loop is got free of the scissors. Then you pass the loop right round the points of the scissorsand follow the double cord backwards. The string will then (if you . have been, very careful) detach itself from the scissors; • •■. THE AMBIGUOUS CLOCK. The first time would be 5 5-143 minutes past 12, which might also (the hands being similar) indicate Ihr 0 60-143 minutes. WAYS OF VOTING. For each of the three clauses there are three ways of voting—for, against or not at all. For each of the three ways of voting for Clause I. there are three ways of voting for Clause 11., consequently 3x3 equals 9 ways of voting for the first two clauses. Then, as there are three ways of voting for Clause 111., for every one of these 9 ways there are 3 x 9 equals, 27 ways of voting in all. But this;is not the correct answer because it includes the case where we . decline to vote for any one of the clauses. This case must be deducted, because the question was, “In how many different ways is it possible for a man to vote?” and not to vote at all is obviously not a way of voting. Of course, to vote both for and against is really not voting at all. The correct answer is 26. THE RIBBON PUZZLE. Imagine the roll to be composed of a series of concentric rings of ribbon. As the ribbon is l-250in in thickness, there will be 756 of these ribbon rings in the Sin thickness. The circumference of the smallest ring is 6.2831853in,.and that of the largest ring is 25.1327412 in. Add these together and multiply by 375 (a half of 750) and we get the result 11780.972445 in, which is 327 yards Oft 9in —the approximate length of the rolled ribbon. UPSIDE-DOWN. The word that Mrs. Daniels gave them was *' I** ■ * ■' . c/bci/Trya ———M—"Chump,” which written §s W© have

here shown reads just the same UDi*:: side down. ’ 1 A NEW CROSS PUZZLE. If we cut out a smaller Greek cross in the manner shown in the diagram the 4 pieces A. B. C. D. will fit together ■: and form a perfect square as in diagram 2. •' ' - / ' , A TINY MAGIC SQUARE. If you fall into the error of writing;: the first 1,2, 3, in the top row, ’as, some of the company did, it is quite, impossible. You must write the 1, '2, 3, in the middle row. You can then place the 3,1, 2, and the .2,3, I>,.in the remaining vacant 1 rows and form a ■ magic square*