"NUTS!"

Evening Post, Issue 28, 1 August 1936, Page 24

"NUTS!"

Intellect Sharpeners All rights reserved

(By 0. 3. Wherefore)

Readers with a little Ingenuity will find In this column an abundant store of entertainment and amusement, and the solving of the problems should provide excellent mental exhilaration. While some of the "nuts" may appear harder than others, it will be found that none will require a sledgehammer to crack them. Address correspondence to P.O. Box 1177, Wellington.

ANOTHEK BIRTHDAY PROBLEM. Mr. T admits that he has a verybad memory, but he was unwilling to let his wife know that he had forgotten the exact date of her birthday and also her age in the present year. Fortunately just as he was going out of the house to buy a present for her, he overheard her telling a friend that her age at this birthday is one-fifth of the number of days which come before it in the year. The friend wanted to know if it had anything to do with the number of days following the date, and Mrs. T was heard to reply: "No, if you were to divide that by five, it would make me 21 years older than I really am." On what day does her birthday come, and what is her age? NON-MATHEMATICAL PUZZLE. In the lines given below the ■ first two spaces are to be filled with words composed of the same seven letters. The word required for the third space is much longer, being composed of these seven letters, together with all the letters of another word found elsewhere in the verse. Both; in the. orchard and the garden near, . The ground is hard with —-, I have heard; But fruits progress and riperi every year, ' I like the shorter simpler word. And when the owners, who have grown this fruit, Can sell it at a price that seems to suit, They must have pleasant cheques to think about, -their bank account, no doubt. ARMCHAIR PROBLEM. George had come back from a brief visit to town wearing a new suit, and his sister wanted.to know how much he had paid for it. This is what he told her: "If the price had been just 8 shillings more, it would have, come to four weeks'salary. As it happens I was given 4 shillings discount, ■ and that makes it just equal to four weeks' salary at the rate I was paid, before I had the increase giveri to me recently." How much information has he' given to his sister? POCKET MONEY. MX M brought the money boxes belonging to her three boys to the Post Office Savings Bank, where the teller took out of each of them all that would make a multiple of one shilling, suitable for depositing, and returned the boxes with the remainder of their contents. If there had been only one account, Mrs. M tells me that there would have been exactly seven shillings and nothing extra to be carried home. But here there were three accounts, and each of them was increased by a different number of shillings. My friend adds that James, her eldest boy, has saved two-thirds of his weekly pocket money every Saturday for the last eleven weeks, and that Keith followed his example seven weeks ago. With reference to Leonard, she said only that he has the same allowance as his elder brothers, and that lately he had also been putting two-thirds of it in his box. How much pocket money per week do these boys get, and how much was in each box when it was taken to the P. 0.5.8.? TORCHES AND BATTERIES. The manager of a department store had received new supplies of torches, ■but as these were of two different sizes and patterns he placed them for sale on two different counters. He was surprised in ' the evening, when each of the two assistants in charge of these articles reported sales to' the value of 16s 10£ d. On making inquiries, he found some other remarkable coincidences. The prices of the torches were in each case four time« as much as those of the batteries, and the number of batteries sold by each person was in each case ten ' more than the number of the torches. No farthings are accepted at this establishment. What were the prices charged for the torches and batteries, and how many of'each had been sold?1 REPAIRS AND OTHER EXPENSES. Professor Aftermath tells me that he was delayed for several hours at a very uninteresting , town, while his car was kept at a repair shop,, owing to a troublesome . breakdown. His three daughters were very much bored; and tried to find some way to pass the ytime by visiting the shops, which were not numerous, and certainly not attractive. They returned in good time, and each one in her turn asked how much the repair bill had come to. "Very well," said the first one, "I have increased your expenditure here by one-twelfth." "I have not spent quite so much as that," said the second, "but I have got rid of cash equal to onefifteenth of your repair bill." The third admitted that she had spent more than her two sisters put together; it was one-sixth of the charge made by the repair shop. The professor told me that the entire sum left behind at that town was an exact number of shillings, but I did not hear clearly how many of them he said it was. What did it amount to? SOLUTIONS. Substitution.—There are 365 acres. Word Change.—Cold, hold, held, head, heat. Income Tax.—He paid no tax, because his income was only £198. -■ Armchair Problem.—A must have ihadthe equivalent of >36 pence, and i B had that of, 33 pence. : ; ' ' : Birthday.—Eleven-twelfths of 70 E years is 64 years and ■ 2 month's. As I the wife's age on her birthday must : be a whole number of years, it folt lows'that the'husbsfla's age must ex- » ceed it by a number of years plus 1 these,2 months. Therefore his birthi day comes in May. 1 Collection of Pictures.—There are t three possible cases, namely, 31 persons T ™7d> or 41 at 3s 5d' or «at 4s » ia. me first two are prime numbers - so that the third is the only one ad' missible. But 49 is the square of 7 2 and has no other factors, so that it s is evident that 7 groups, each of 7 per-1 i sons, voted for 7.0f the pictures