THE EGG PUZZLE.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 1922, 18 August 1888, Page 3

THE EGG PUZZLE.

Anthony Lee says 28 Is tho correct answer, He has figured It out. A correspondent wrlteß In a contemporary ;— " In my humble opinion, the reason that so many smart editors and correspondents have hitherto faded to give the true answer — laughably simple though it be — is that none as yet seem to have caught the true meaning of the question. Instead of trying to find how many eggs a oartaln cumber of tans oou'd or wonH l*y m a given time, they have gone Into all sorts of figures, and found out to their own entire satlifacUon not what the hens would do, but what they ought to do. Question : ' If a hen and a b »lf lay an egg and a half m a day and a-half, how many eggs will six hens lay m seven days V Answer : Twenty-four. I arrive at that number thus : — As three half hens take three half daya to lay three half eggs, one whole hen will lay one whole egg m the same time. Therefore one hen will lay four eggs m the same time— i c., m six days. That beiog undoubtedly so, how many will the cix lay In Beven days ? Why, twenty-four of course. Perhaps they ought to lay more, but as they oannot they won't. They have all laid an egg on the sixth day, and on the seventh day they won't lay at all, for the simple reason that the eggs are not ready — their day and a-half is not up. — Uurekal" Robert W. Oroy, Ashton, writes : — ln answer to the egg problem, I beg leave to send you the following answer : For instance, a heu and a half lay an egg and a half m a day and a half is exaotly an egg for eaoh hen per day ; consequently six hens m seven days would lay forty- two egga. This problem reminds me cf the half-psnny problem, which Is as follows : Halfpenny wet, halfpenny dry, fourpenoe halfpenny and a halfpenny by, halfpenny behind, halfpenny before, fourpenoa half* penny and a halfpenny more. Another correspondent writes :— "There la a catch m this puzzle. Six hens will lay twenty-four eggs m six day, bnt as they do not lay again for a day and a half, of course they do not lay more eggs In seven daya than they do m six. Twentyfour eggs Is therefore the answer. They only lay at the rate of twenty-eight In seven days." Another puzzle solver puts It this way : — " At tho end of six days the six hens will have laid twenty four eggs, and unlf si four of the hens have premature deliveries there can be no jnew arrivals on the night of the seventh day, as a hen only lays one egg In a day and a-half ; therefore it would be on the first half of tho eighth day before there' were any more eggs, and I think it Is here where the puzzle oomeß m," "Twenty-four complete eggs and six eggs without shells " Is given by another as the answer. H. Dudley, Ashburton, gives 21 egga as the answer.