Chapter 25 of 44 · 3940 words · ~20 min read

Part 25

Farthing in 0 way. Halfpenny in 1 way. Penny in 3 ways. Threepenny-piece in 16 ways. Sixpence in 66 ways. Shilling in 402 ways. Florin in 3,818 ways. Half-crown in 8,709 ways. Double florin in 60,239 ways. Crown in 166,651 ways. Half-sovereign in 6,261,622 ways. Sovereign in 500,291,833 ways.

It is a little surprising to find that a sovereign may be changed in over five hundred million different ways. But I have no doubt as to the correctness of my figures.

33.--A PUZZLE IN REVERSALS.

(i) £13. (2) £23, 19s. 11d. The words "the number of pounds exceeds that of the pence" exclude such sums of money as £2, 16s. 2d. and all sums under £1.

34.--THE GROCER AND DRAPER.

The grocer was delayed half a minute and the draper eight minutes and a half (seventeen times as long as the grocer), making together nine minutes. Now, the grocer took twenty-four minutes to weigh out the sugar, and, with the half-minute delay, spent 24 min. 30 sec. over the task; but the draper had only to make _forty-seven_ cuts to divide the roll of cloth, containing forty-eight yards, into yard pieces! This took him 15 min. 40 sec., and when we add the eight minutes and a half delay we get 24 min. 10 sec., from which it is clear that the draper won the race by twenty seconds. The majority of solvers make forty-eight cuts to divide the roll into forty-eight pieces!

35.--JUDKINS'S CATTLE.

As there were five droves with an equal number of animals in each drove, the number must be divisible by 5; and as every one of the eight dealers bought the same number of animals, the number must be divisible by 8. Therefore the number must be a multiple of 40. The highest possible multiple of 40 that will work will be found to be 120, and this number could be made up in one of two ways--1 ox, 23 pigs, and 96 sheep, or 3 oxen, 8 pigs, and 109 sheep. But the first is excluded by the statement that the animals consisted of "oxen, pigs, and sheep," because a single ox is not oxen. Therefore the second grouping is the correct answer.

36.--BUYING APPLES.

As there were the same number of boys as girls, it is clear that the number of children must be even, and, apart from a careful and exact reading of the question, there would be three different answers. There might be two, six, or fourteen children. In the first of these cases there are ten different ways in which the apples could be bought. But we were told there was an equal number of "boys and girls," and one boy and one girl are not boys and girls, so this case has to be excluded. In the case of fourteen children, the only possible distribution is that each child receives one halfpenny apple. But we were told that each child was to receive an equal distribution of "apples," and one apple is not apples, so this case has also to be excluded. We are therefore driven back on our third case, which exactly fits in with all the conditions. Three boys and three girls each receive 1 halfpenny apple and 2 third-penny apples. The value of these 3 apples is one penny and one-sixth, which multiplied by six makes sevenpence. Consequently, the correct answer is that there were six children--three girls and three boys.

37.--BUYING CHESTNUTS.

In solving this little puzzle we are concerned with the exact interpretation of the words used by the buyer and seller. I will give the question again, this time adding a few words to make the matter more clear. The added words are printed in italics.

"A man went into a shop to buy chestnuts. He said he wanted a pennyworth, and was given five chestnuts. 'It is not enough; I ought to have a sixth _of a chestnut more_,' he remarked. 'But if I give you one chestnut more,' the shopman replied, 'you will have _five-sixths_ too many.' Now, strange to say, they were both right. How many chestnuts should the buyer receive for half a crown?"

The answer is that the price was 155 chestnuts for half a crown. Divide this number by 30, and we find that the buyer was entitled to 5+1/6 chestnuts in exchange for his penny. He was, therefore, right when he said, after receiving five only, that he still wanted a sixth. And the salesman was also correct in saying that if he gave one chestnut more (that is, six chestnuts in all) he would be giving five-sixths of a chestnut in excess.

38.--THE BICYCLE THIEF.

People give all sorts of absurd answers to this question, and yet it is perfectly simple if one just considers that the salesman cannot possibly have lost more than the cyclist actually stole. The latter rode away with a bicycle which cost the salesman eleven pounds, and the ten pounds "change;" he thus made off with twenty-one pounds, in exchange for a worthless bit of paper. This is the exact amount of the salesman's loss, and the other operations of changing the cheque and borrowing from a friend do not affect the question in the slightest. The loss of prospective profit on the sale of the bicycle is, of course, not direct loss of money out of pocket.

39.--THE COSTERMONGER'S PUZZLE.

Bill must have paid 8s. per hundred for his oranges--that is, 125 for 10s. At 8s. 4d. per hundred, he would only have received 120 oranges for 10s. This exactly agrees with Bill's statement.

40.--MAMMA'S AGE.

The age of Mamma must have been 29 years 2 months; that of Papa, 35 years; and that of the child, Tommy, 5 years 10 months. Added together, these make seventy years. The father is six times the age of the son, and, after 23 years 4 months have elapsed, their united ages will amount to 140 years, and Tommy will be just half the age of his father.

41.--THEIR AGES.

The gentleman's age must have been 54 years and that of his wife 45 years.

42.--THE FAMILY AGES.

The ages were as follows: Billie, 3½ years; Gertrude, 1¾ year; Henrietta, 5¼ years; Charlie, 10½; years; and Janet, 21 years.

43.--MRS. TIMPKINS'S AGE.

The age of the younger at marriage is always the same as the number of years that expire before the elder becomes twice her age, if he was three times as old at marriage. In our case it was eighteen years afterwards; therefore Mrs. Timpkins was eighteen years of age on the wedding-day, and her husband fifty-four.

44.--A CENSUS PUZZLE.

Miss Ada Jorkins must have been twenty-four and her little brother Johnnie three years of age, with thirteen brothers and sisters between. There was a trap for the solver in the words "seven times older than little Johnnie." Of course, "seven times older" is equal to eight times as old. It is surprising how many people hastily assume that it is the same as "seven times as old." Some of the best writers have committed this blunder. Probably many of my readers thought that the ages 24½ and 3½ were correct.

45.--MOTHER AND DAUGHTER.

In four and a half years, when the daughter will be sixteen years and a half and the mother forty-nine and a half years of age.

46.--MARY AND MARMADUKE.

Marmaduke's age must have been twenty-nine years and two-fifths, and Mary's nineteen years and three-fifths. When Marmaduke was aged nineteen and three-fifths, Mary was only nine and four-fifths; so Marmaduke was at that time twice her age.

47.--ROVER'S AGE.

Rover's present age is ten years and Mildred's thirty years. Five years ago their respective ages were five and twenty-five. Remember that we said "four times older than the dog," which is the same as "five times as old." (See answer to No. 44.)

48.--CONCERNING TOMMY'S AGE.

Tommy Smart's age must have been nine years and three-fifths. Ann's age was sixteen and four-fifths, the mother's thirty-eight and two-fifths, and the father's fifty and two-fifths.

49.--NEXT-DOOR NEIGHBOURS.

Mr. Jupp 39, Mrs. Jupp 34, Julia 14, and Joe 13; Mr. Simkin 42; Mrs. Simkin 40; Sophy 10; and Sammy 8.

50.--THE BAG OF NUTS.

It will be found that when Herbert takes twelve, Robert and Christopher will take nine and fourteen respectively, and that they will have together taken thirty-five nuts. As 35 is contained in 770 twenty-two times, we have merely to multiply 12, 9, and 14 by 22 to discover that Herbert's share was 264, Robert's 198, and Christopher's 308. Then, as the total of their ages is 17½ years or half the sum of 12, 9, and 14, their respective ages must be 6, 4½, and 7 years.

51.--HOW OLD WAS MARY?

The age of Mary to that of Ann must be as 5 to 3. And as the sum of their ages was 44, Mary was 27½ and Ann 16½. One is exactly 11 years older than the other. I will now insert in brackets in the original statement the various ages specified: "Mary is (27½) twice as old as Ann was (13¾) when Mary was half as old (24¾) as Ann will be (49½) when Ann is three times as old (49½) as Mary was (16½) when Mary was (16½) three times as old as Ann (5½)." Now, check this backwards. When Mary was three times as old as Ann, Mary was 16½ and Ann 5½ (11 years younger). Then we get 49½ for the age Ann will be when she is three times as old as Mary was then. When Mary was half this she was 24¾. And at that time Ann must have been 13¾ (11 years younger). Therefore Mary is now twice as old--27½, and Ann 11 years younger--16½.

52.--QUEER RELATIONSHIPS.

If a man marries a woman, who dies, and he then marries his deceased wife's sister and himself dies, it may be correctly said that he had (previously) married the sister of his widow.

The youth was not the nephew of Jane Brown, because he happened to be her son. Her surname was the same as that of her brother, because she had married a man of the same name as herself.

53.--HEARD ON THE TUBE RAILWAY.

The gentleman was the second lady's uncle.

54.--A FAMILY PARTY.

The party consisted of two little girls and a boy, their father and mother, and their father's father and mother.

55.--A MIXED PEDIGREE.

[Illustration:

]

The letter m stands for "married." It will be seen that John Snoggs can say to Joseph Bloggs, "You are my _father's brother-in-law_, because my father married your sister Kate; you are my _brother's father-in-law_, because my brother Alfred married your daughter Mary; and you are my _father-in-law's brother_, because my wife Jane was your brother Henry's daughter."

56.--WILSON'S POSER.

If there are two men, each of whom marries the mother of the other, and there is a son of each marriage, then each of such sons will be at the same time uncle and nephew of the other. There are other ways in which the relationship may be brought about, but this is the simplest.

57.--WHAT WAS THE TIME?

The time must have been 9.36 p.m. A quarter of the time since noon is 2 hr. 24 min., and a half of the time till noon next day is 7 hr. 12 min. These added together make 9 hr. 36 min.

58.--A TIME PUZZLE.

Twenty-six minutes.

59.--A PUZZLING WATCH.

If the 65 minutes be counted on the face of the same watch, then the problem would be impossible: for the hands must coincide every 65+5/11 minutes as shown by its face, and it matters not whether it runs fast or slow; but if it is measured by true time, it gains 5/11 of a minute in 65 minutes, or 60/143 of a minute per hour.

60.--THE WAPSHAW'S WHARF MYSTERY.

There are eleven different times in twelve hours when the hour and minute hands of a clock are exactly one above the other. If we divide 12 hours by 11 we get 1 hr. 5 min. 27+3/11 sec., and this is the time after twelve o'clock when they are first together, and also the time that elapses between one occasion of the hands being together and the next. They are together for the second time at 2 hr. 10 min. 54+6/11 sec. (twice the above time); next at 3 hr. 16 min. 21+9/11 sec.; next at 4 hr. 21 min. 49+1/11 sec. This last is the only occasion on which the two hands are together with the second hand "just past the forty-ninth second." This, then, is the time at which the watch must have stopped. Guy Boothby, in the opening sentence of his _Across the World for a Wife_, says, "It was a cold, dreary winter's afternoon, and by the time the hands of the clock on my mantelpiece joined forces and stood at twenty minutes past four, my chambers were well-nigh as dark as midnight." It is evident that the author here made a slip, for, as we have seen above, he is 1 min. 49+1/11 sec. out in his reckoning.

61.--CHANGING PLACES.

There are thirty-six pairs of times when the hands exactly change places between three p.m. and midnight. The number of pairs of times from any hour (n) to midnight is the sum of 12 - (n + 1) natural numbers. In the case of the puzzle n = 3; therefore 12 - (3 + 1) = 8 and 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 + 6 + 7 + 8 = 36, the required answer.

The first pair of times is 3 hr. 21+57/143 min. and 4 hr. 16+112/143 min., and the last pair is 10 hr. 59+83/143 min. and 11 hr. 54+138/143 min. I will not give all the remainder of the thirty-six pairs of times, but supply a formula by which any of the sixty-six pairs that occur from midday to midnight may be at once found:--

720b + 60a 720a + 60b min. a hr ---------- min. and b hr. --------------- 143 143

For the letter a may be substituted any hour from 0, 1, 2, 3 up to 10 (where nought stands for 12 o'clock midday); and b may represent any hour, later than a, up to 11.

By the aid of this formula there is no difficulty in discovering the answer to the second question: a = 8 and b = 11 will give the pair 8 hr. 58+106/143 min. and 11 hr. 44+128/143 min., the latter being the time when the minute hand is nearest of all to the point IX--in fact, it is only 15/143 of a minute distant.

Readers may find it instructive to make a table of all the sixty-six pairs of times when the hands of a clock change places. An easy way is as follows: Make a column for the first times and a second column for the second times of the pairs. By making a = 0 and b = 1 in the above expressions we find the first case, and enter hr. 5+5/143 min. at the head of the first column, and 1 hr. 0+60/143 min. at the head of the second column. Now, by successively adding 5+5/143 min. in the first, and 1 hr. 0+60/143 min. in the second column, we get all the _eleven_ pairs in which the first time is a certain number of minutes after nought, or mid-day. Then there is a "jump" in the times, but you can find the next pair by making a = 1 and b = 2, and then by successively adding these two times as before you will get all the _ten_ pairs after 1 o'clock. Then there is another "jump," and you will be able to get by addition all the _nine_ pairs after 2 o'clock. And so on to the end. I will leave readers to investigate for themselves the nature and cause of the "jumps." In this way we get under the successive hours, 11 + 10 + 9 + 8 + 7 + 6 + 5 + 4 + 3 + 2 + 1 = 66 pairs of times, which result agrees with the formula in the first paragraph of this article.

Some time ago the principal of a Civil Service Training College, who conducts a "Civil Service Column" in one of the periodicals, had the query addressed to him, "How soon after XII o'clock will a clock with both hands of the same length be ambiguous?" His first answer was, "Some time past one o'clock," but he varied the answer from issue to issue. At length some of his readers convinced him that the answer is, "At 5+5/143 min. past XII;" and this he finally gave as correct, together with the reason for it that at that time _the time indicated is the same whichever hand you may assume as hour hand!_

62.--THE CLUB CLOCK.

The positions of the hands shown in the illustration could only indicate that the clock stopped at 44 min. 51+1143/1427 sec. after eleven o'clock. The second hand would next be "exactly midway between the other two hands" at 45 min. 52+496/1427 sec. after eleven o'clock. If we had been dealing with the points on the circle to which the three hands are directed, the answer would be 45 min. 22+106/1427 sec. after eleven; but the question applied to the hands, and the second hand would not be between the others at that time, but outside them.

63.--THE STOP-WATCH.

The time indicated on the watch was 5+5/11 min. past 9, when the second hand would be at 27+3/11 sec. The next time the hands would be similar distances apart would be 54+6/11 min. past 2, when the second hand would be at 32+8/11 sec. But you need only hold the watch (or our previous illustration of it) in front of a mirror, when you will see the second time reflected in it! Of course, when reflected, you will read XI as I, X as II, and so on.

64.--THE THREE CLOCKS.

As a mere arithmetical problem this question presents no difficulty. In order that the hands shall all point to twelve o'clock at the same time, it is necessary that B shall gain at least twelve hours and that C shall lose twelve hours. As B gains a minute in a day of twenty-four hours, and C loses a minute in precisely the same time, it is evident that one will have gained 720 minutes (just twelve hours) in 720 days, and the other will have lost 720 minutes in 720 days. Clock A keeping perfect time, all three clocks must indicate twelve o'clock simultaneously at noon on the 720th day from April 1, 1898. What day of the month will that be?

I published this little puzzle in 1898 to see how many people were aware of the fact that 1900 would not be a leap year. It was surprising how many were then ignorant on the point. Every year that can be divided by four without a remainder is bissextile or leap year, with the exception that one leap year is cut off in the century. 1800 was not a leap year, nor was 1900. On the other hand, however, to make the calendar more nearly agree with the sun's course, every fourth hundred year is still considered bissextile. Consequently, 2000, 2400, 2800, 3200, etc., will all be leap years. May my readers live to see them. We therefore find that 720 days from noon of April 1, 1898, brings us to noon of March 22, 1900.

65.--THE RAILWAY STATION CLOCK.

The time must have been 43+7/11 min. past two o'clock.

66.--THE VILLAGE SIMPLETON.

The day of the week on which the conversation took place was Sunday. For when the day after to-morrow (Tuesday) is "yesterday," "to-day" will be Wednesday; and when the day before yesterday (Friday) was "to-morrow," "to-day" was Thursday. There are two days between Thursday and Sunday, and between Sunday and Wednesday.

67.--AVERAGE SPEED.

The average speed is twelve miles an hour, not twelve and a half, as most people will hastily declare. Take any distance you like, say sixty miles. This would have taken six hours going and four hours returning. The double journey of 120 miles would thus take ten hours, and the average speed is clearly twelve miles an hour.

68.--THE TWO TRAINS.

One train was running just twice as fast as the other.

69.--THE THREE VILLAGES.

Calling the three villages by their initial letters, it is clear that the three roads form a triangle, A, B, C, with a perpendicular, measuring twelve miles, dropped from C to the base A, B. This divides our triangle into two right-angled triangles with a twelve-mile side in common. It is then found that the distance from A to C is 15 miles, from C to B 20 miles, and from A to B 25 (that is 9 and 16) miles. These figures are easily proved, for the square of 12 added to the square of 9 equals the square of 15, and the square of 12 added to the square of 16 equals the square of 20.

70.--DRAWING HER PENSION.

The distance must be 6¾ miles.

71.--SIR EDWYN DE TUDOR.

The distance must have been sixty miles. If Sir Edwyn left at noon and rode 15 miles an hour, he would arrive at four o'clock--an hour too soon. If he rode 10 miles an hour, he would arrive at six o'clock--an hour too late. But if he went at 12 miles an hour, he would reach the castle of the wicked baron exactly at five o'clock--the time appointed.

72.--THE HYDROPLANE QUESTION.

The machine must have gone at the rate of seven-twenty-fourths of a mile per minute and the wind travelled five-twenty-fourths of a mile per minute. Thus, going, the wind would help, and the machine would do twelve-twenty-fourths, or half a mile a minute, and returning only two-twenty-fourths, or one-twelfth of a mile per minute, the wind being against it. The machine without any wind could therefore do the ten miles in thirty-four and two-sevenths minutes, since it could do seven miles in twenty-four minutes.

73.--DONKEY RIDING.

The complete mile was run in nine minutes. From the facts stated we cannot determine the time taken over the first and second quarter-miles separately, but together they, of course, took four and a half minutes. The last two quarters were run in two and a quarter minutes each.

74.--THE BASKET OF POTATOES.

Multiply together the number of potatoes, the number less one, and twice the number less one, then divide by 3. Thus 50, 49, and 99 multiplied together make 242,550, which, divided by 3, gives us 80,850 yards as the correct answer. The boy would thus have to travel 45 miles and fifteen-sixteenths--a nice little recreation after a day's work.

75.--THE PASSENGER'S FARE.

Mr. Tompkins should have paid fifteen shillings as his correct share of the motor-car fare. He only shared half the distance travelled for £3, and therefore should pay half of thirty shillings, or fifteen shillings.

76.--THE BARREL OF BEER.