MORE FOR THE PRIMER CLASSES

New Zealand Listener, Volume 2, Issue 50, 7 June 1940, Page 16

MORE FOR THE PRIMER CLASSES

viously encountered the strange business of the letter T probably learned something about the alphabet. they had not known before. This week we continue the lessons for the primer classes with an exercise in punctuation, The example is supplied by G. Tisbury, of Invercargill, and will be found in its proper place. The cipher problem on May 24 won an immediate response. Hearts were gladdened when the first correct answer came from our old friend Sylvia, who had been dormant for a disappointingly long period. Lillian, of Hawera, was next, and obliged with the key. However, although puzzlers sent the answer, we were not really interested, as we knew it already. What we did look forward to.receiving, was more ciphers. None camé.Answers must be sent, of course, since the ‘Regulations these days insist that nothing must be posted which might givé the censor a headache; but we promise not to look until we've tried. And now to business: ANSWERS: (See issue of May 24) Non Euclidean Geometry: Puzzlers have this one all wrong. Several propositions have come in reply to S.G.E.’s statement of the position, but none view the matter in its true perspective. This drawing of the triangle as stated by §.G.E, will clear matters up: I AST week puzzlers who had not pre-

Condensed Crossword (answer to last week's): Slop Hope Oven Tent Work. It Out Quickly: Everyone agrees that Mr. Blob bought the car for £202.13.4 by reduction in thirds. Cipher: BUS STRIKES DON’T HARMONISE WITH CORONATION FESTIVITIES Shunt Again: Keep on shunting, and remember that the trucks cannot go through a dead-end siding. G. Tisbury suggests pushing the trucks on to the main line by hand; but that seems very like hard work and is probably not provided for in the award. For the Pigs: Continue the right-angle line from A through BC to a point the same distance from BC as A is from

BC. From that point draw a diagonal to D, and where this diagonal intersects BC is the spot where Dimpleton must take in water for the pigs. PROBLEMS: Condensed Crossword All words are of four letters only. Clues Across: This titled gentleman usually returns and has even been mentioned in The House. Essential to every paddock, Kind. Antecedents to Mary’s companion. Clues Down: Stand at this. No bar if it flies. On the spot. Sometimes you're off them. Variations on 142857 In the Taxi And here is Mr. Tisbury’s news: How much’ nicer it is to ride in a taxi, and think how much nicer it is to ride in a taxi than it is to walk than it is to walk and think how much nicer it is to ride in a taxi than it is to walk. Palindrome Four Feathers (Auckland) writes: "Tradition has it that Napoleon, finding time hanging on his hands on St. Helena, constructed the. following sentence: ABLE WAS I ERE I SAW ELBA. "Which you will’ notice with your ‘customary astuteness spells the same which ever end you begin at. Now, can any of your bright readers concoct a similar text for Hitler?" For the Upper Ten Let the upper ten look back to the issue of April 26. There, in the first column, they will find S.G.E. (Glenavy) asking for a rule about not- e numbers. Then let them look at the issue of May 17, where H.G. replied in the correspondence section. Now let them consider S.G.E.’s comments. He says that his problem has been misunderstood because in . simplifying the wording he made if ambiguous. He now wants the experts to "devise a simple rule (algebraic or arithmetical) by which it is possible to devise any series of mn consecutive integers not one of which is prime." S.G.E. suggests that n could equal 50,000 or 5m, The problem then becomes a matter of finding a method of locating from the rule a series of five million consecutive integers none of which is prime, he says. Obviously, he admits, it would be possible to locate a series having this property by using Erastothenes’s sieve in a modified form. This, however, is really a method of trial and error, and S.G.E. wants a simple rule for locating the series -without "preliminary messing about." When they grapple with two or three problems like this, $.G.E. thinks the experts will see that "a complicated calculation via the calculus is mere

child’s play, and that it takes a real mathematician to do arithmetic." Let the fun begin.