FAMILY FUN

New Zealand Tablet, 4 October 1906, Page 38

FAMILY FUN

Strange but True — That a taut rope is none ihe wiser. That, though night falls, clay breaks. That a pen has to be driven, but a pencil is lead. That sailors never box the compass on the spar deck. That the fellow with a literary bent is usually broke. That a tree is cut down before it is easily cut up. That improper fractions should figure in pure mathematics.

Here is a method of telling a person's age and the month in which he was born. It is a peculiar arithmetical puzzle. Ask the person whose age you arc investigating to write down the number of the month in which he or she was born — thus January would be one, and June six, and so on. Then to double it, add five, and multiply by fifty ; then to add their age and subtract 365. When this is done, ask for the result, and add 115. The total will give the required age, the first figure or figures being the number of the month, and the remainder the age. Suppose one is 'born in March and is twenty-five. Thq number of March is three, doubled is six ; add five and you get 11 ; multiplied by 50, 550'; add 25 and you have 575. Subtract 365, and the result is 210. When 115 is added the total is 325. The third month and twenty-five years.

For the trick of the enchanted ball a small lightweight rubber ball is needed. The performer picks it up with one hand, and holding his hands in front of his breast and about a foot apart, causes the ball to travel visibly from one hand to the other by simply blowing on it. After it has made the journey two or three times, it suddenly stops and remains •in miH-air. Then it moves again from hand to haind, and finally stops once more when half-way across and falls to the ground. Anyone is at liberty to pick it ~ up to see that -it is not prepared in any way. The secret of the trick is that the performer has a loop of very fine black sewing-silk about fifteen inches long, stretched from an upper button of his .waistcoat to a lower one. All that he' has to do is to slip this loop over his forefingers, and move his hands apart until the loop is taut. The double line of silk forms a sort of trough in which the ball will move. By slacking the hands the ball will fall to the floor. Care must be taken that the loop comes far enough downso as not to show against "the white shirt-front. To get a fine sewing-silk, the best plan, is to buy .the finest to be had, and unravel it. You will then have three strands of very, very fine silk.