Some Catch Questions

Feilding Star, Volume XI, Issue 115, 22 March 1890, Page 4

Some Catch Questions

There exists, floating about the ! world in a verbal form, and occasionally appearing in print, a certain class •of; propositions or queries of which the otjeot is to puzzle the wit? of the uuwary listener, or. to be guile him into giviug a laughable reply. Many of these are well known, are regularly brought forth every Christmas at social gatherings, and are invariably successful in tilling up a dull portion of the- 'evening, and keeping the fun alive. Who, for instance, has not been asked some time or other the following questions ? . *If a goose weighs ten pounds and a. half its own weight, what is the weight of the goose ?" And who has nbt at once replied, fifteen pounds?* the correct answer being, of course, twenty pounds. "Indeed, it ; is astonishing what a very simple^qjrery will sometimes catch the w isest of us napping ; even the following have been known to succeed : — " How many days would it take to cut up a piece of cloth fifty yards long oue yard being cut off every day?" Or again, "A snail climbing up a post twenty feet high, ascends five every day. and slips down ' four feet every night. How long will the snail take to rea-li the . top of the post ?." Or again: -'A.wise man haying a window one yard high and one yard wide, and requiring niore light, enlarged his window to twice its former size ; yet the window was still only one yard high and one yard wide. | How was this done ?" This last is a catch in geometry, as the preceding were catch questions in arithmetic— the window being dia-mond-shaped at first, and afterwards made o quare.' As to the two former, perhaps it is scarcely necessary to insult the- intelligence of our readers by pointing out that the answer to. the first is not fifty days but forty- vine; and to the second not t.venty days, but sixteen—^sinee the snail veho-j gains one foot ecicli day for -fifteen days climbs on the sixteenth day to the top of the poll, and there remains, no doubt being tired of the job.