WHEN GOODSHOT USED A CODE

New Zealand Listener, Volume 3, Issue 73, 15 November 1940, Page 55

WHEN GOODSHOT USED A CODE

HIS week a frightening supply of puzzles has arrived. Old correspondents, and some new ones, have sent in sheet after sheet of material for headaches. Evidently Mussolini does not matter so much after all. However, these will be acknowledged and used as opportunity offers. Before that, consider the case of Colonel Goodshot, and His Code: PUZZLES Goodshot and His Code Colonel Goodshot was a_ big-gatne hunter, known, respected, and feared throughout the jungle by all its inhabitants, not so much because of the accuracy of his shooting, but because his fiery breath shrivelled the vegetation, and thus reduced available food supplies, Goodshot, in fact, was worse than a blockade, especially when his gout bothered him. More fortunate than usual, on one of his expeditions, he captured a creature which he decided to present to the zoo. Before this event Goodshot had always stalked his prey, and come upon them unseen. Their first warning would be a shell zipping through the branches some feet away from them. Goodshot quite failed to realise that this was the wrong method. On the day this beast was captured he stubbed his gouty toe on the dummy egg of a buzzard’s nest, swore loudly, and was seen in full view by the beast. That was sufficient: paralysed, the creature was captured easily by Goodshot himself. With his genius excited by this event, Goodshot decided to cable the zoo in code, thus: 23/9 [-2 4 |22|23]:6]9 [a

This caused the zoologists no end of trouble, until one old fellow found the key to the code. What animal was it? -(Problem from R.G., Waihi). Trucks Two men are sent out gravelling with trucks. Arthur takes five minutes to fill a truck. George takes ten minutes to fill a truck. How long does it take the two men to fill three trucks?(Problem from L.W.R., Nelson), Digits Find a number, the last two digits of which, when doubled, are equal to the square root of the number.-(Prob-lem from R.C.J.M., Invercargill). Spiral A shaft, or column, 200 feet high, with a circumference of 16 feet 8 inches, is wreathed in a spiral garland which passes round the column five times. What is the length of the gar-land?-(Problem from R.C.J.M.). Geometry for Alice D.P., of Gore, sends this sample of the work of Lewis Carroll, famous as a mathematician as well as the author of the Alice stories and others. When Queen Victoria read Alice she asked to be given his next book. It happened to be a mathematical treatise, However, here is the problem: ABCD is a square and BE equals BC. PS and RS are perpendicular bisectors

of DC and DE, meeting at S. Join S to A, D, E and B. In the triangles AQS and BQS, AQ equals BQ and QS is common; and the right angle AQS equals the right angle BQS. Therefore AS equals BS. Similarly in the triangles DRS and ERS, DS equals ES. Therefore, in the triangles ADS and BES, AD equals BE, DS equals ES. AS equals BS, Therefore the triangles are congruent, Therefore angle DAS equals angle EBS. But angle QAS equals QBS, therefore, by subtraction, DAQ equals EBQ, or a right angle equals an acute angle. Readers are required to find the fallacy, if any, in that proof. ANSWERS (See issue of November 1) Census: As Ajas did not send an answer, we use XGT’s, for which no responsibility is accepted, although we must admit that this correspondent has the knack of driving the nail: (A) William 23 years old, Jan. 22, (B) John 9, Mary 6, (C) Frank 7, Agnes 2. Sylvia agrees with that. For Golfers: Idolatry, Dilatory, Adroitly-(Problem and answer from L.W.J.S., who is actually G.W.G.S, when you have looked at it several times. He comes from Tauranga, where the lemons grow).

1011.1008 X Marks the Spot: 625)631938 625 ~ 693 625 688 625 630 625 5000 5000 (Problem and answer from R.G., Waihi) Bacchus in Bolonia: XGT says 9.97 per cent. D.P. says 9.96 per cent. Rob says 10 per cent. There’s boloney some-where.-(Problem from R.G.). Shoe Swindle: As many shoes as there were people in the town. The onelegged people required one shoe each. One half the remainder went barefoot; so that all the remainder would need one shoe each for the remainder to have two shoes each, so to speak.-(Problem and answer from Rob, who is safely out of the way at Ahipara).

Another Train: Four-and-a-half m.p.h, and _ six-and-three-quarters m.p.h.(Problem and answer from A.G.T. Picton). Filling the Cistern: 15 and 12 minutes -(Problem. and answer from E.A.C.).