SOMEONE WANTS TO KNOW

New Zealand Listener, Volume 2, Issue 35, 23 February 1940, Page 24

SOMEONE WANTS TO KNOW

phone says, if answers to The Listener puzzles could not be (1) printed in the same issue as the puzzles; (2) printed at least in the week following publication. When Kupe came to New Zealand he mo doubt asked himself: "Now what's to do?" We feel sure he did not answer: "Wait till next week’s issue." When all those people who've been featured on the air lately as pioneers first asked the question: "What do we do now?" we feel sure the waves on the unprinted sand and the bush on the untrodden hills did not rise up and answer: "See this page next week." Perhaps it would be more to the point to say that puzzles are not printed in The Listener to fill space; but to amuse readers. In this peculiar form of entertainment amusement comes from being puzzled, and you can’t be puzzled if you can look up the answers as easily as ae As for (2): an interval of a fortnight gives us time to acknowledge correspondence relating to each puzzle. As we have to work some days ahead of the printers, it also avoids the danger of S OMEONE wants to know, the tele-

confusion through overlapping. So. . . And someone wants to know if the problem about the ladders against the walls of the alley was a hoax or authentic. School teachers have found it a serious affliction. Some spent two or three days on it before they told us how criminal it was to divert the country’s war effort into such seemingly futile channels. Others spent a longer time and have not yet regained enough energy to vent their spleen upon us thoroughly. To all those hair-tearing readers who have written, called, or telephoned about this one, we can only say that it was sent by G. F. Chippindale, of Lower Hutt, who said, quite modestly, that "I wonder if any of your readers could solve the following puzzle mathematically? Unfortunately I cannot give the solution, but can assure you that there is one. The solution was published in an English Sunday paper in 1937, but I cannot remember what it was." And, in a later letter, the same correspondent writes: " Many thanks for printing the problem about the ladders, and would like to see a solution." And so should all of us. It’s up to you. G. H. Presswood (Whangarei) says he solved it by geometry,

Infinity and Relativity And someone really ought to settle that other hash about the hare and the greyhound. Speaking impartially, we think the greyhound really would catch the hare; but a real greyhound, when it was within the last inch of the hare’s tail, would spurt a little and spoil the plan, so someone, as Mr. Hogg says, has still to make a satisfactory definition of infinity, or the hare will keep on running. And that seems to state both sides of the question, Backwards and Forwards And someone says that it was all rot about the flange of the train wheel moving backward while the train moves forward. Particularly cocky is "A Humble Boiler Attendant" who writes from Westport and talks of "a bloomer like this." Which rather puts us on our mettle in defence of W. J. Fisher, of Te Awamutu, who posed it originally last December, From Ruth Collins comes our answer. It is the flange of the wheel

which is in question, dear A.H.B.A., and not the running surface, whatever you call it. And we say, although you might think differently, that the flange of the wheel does not describe the sort of curve made when we did as you suggested and rolled a pencil along the editorial table. It goes below the rail, and has to hurry round, travelling backwards for a brief moment, to keep up with the running surface on the rail. So that with every turn of the wheel it describes a little extra loop all by itself and during this loop travels backwards. Its course through the air is described as a curtate cycloid, and it does go backward, and the brick you hoped would be dropped upon our erring heads has thus been deflected from its target. D. H. Mackay, of Waipu, still differs from Miss Collins about the salary increments. By way of mediation, we award half the prize bun to each and trust that when their turn comes, both in their own ways will know which offer to accept. Cricket To make up for dismissing D.H.M. in this summary manner we find space for his question about cricket. He has two bowlers, A and B. In a two-innings match they bowl unchanged. In each innings A has easily a better average than B, but for the whole match B’s average is much better than A’s. "Can any reader,’ Mr. Mackay asks, " show how this could happen?" And, again from Waipu, comes this story of the financial genius of Tommy, who was given 1/- to go to a circus, He found a ticket would cost 1/6. Luckily a pawnbroker was open nearby, s0 Tommy pawned his 1/- for 10d., sold the pawn ticket for 8d and used the 18d to enter the circus, Can any young reader discover the catch? Anticipating "hours of argument," Mr. Mackay says that Jones bought a racehorse for £200. It won a race with a £100 stake. Smith offered to pay £500 for the horse, but Jones refused to sell. That night the horse died. What was Jones’s exact loss? By our own admission we must in this issue supply the answers to the puzzles printed on February 9: the three soldiers were marching in single file. R.J.A. suggests that two were marching, equidistant in a circle. For "The Locals" problem P.J.A, agrees with A. Smither (Christchurch) that the men were: Simpson, surgeon; Bates, banker; Rogers, lawyer; Jackson, dentist; Fry, accountant; Williams, architect. L.C.T. has Simpson as dentist and Jackson as surgeon. The bun to A Smither for an answer which is a model of clarity plus brevity.

Correspondents who do not wish their names to appear should sign their letters with initials or a suitable pseudonym. Their proper names and addresses should be set out separately, with a circle drawn round them to make it additionally clear that they are not to be used.