by Dudeney, Henry Ernest, 1857-1930
Available in 215 free installments
Owner:
Here the foreman of the jury asked for a few minutes to figure out the number of steps the constable must have taken. Can you also say how many steps the officer needed to catch the thief?
105.?THE PARISH COUNCIL ELECTION.
Here is an easy problem for the novice. At the last election of the parish council of Tittlebury-in-the-Marsh there were twenty-three candidates for nine seats. Each voter was qualified to vote for nine of these candidates or for any less number. One of the electors wants to know in just how many different ways it was possible for him to vote.
106.?THE MUDDLETOWN ELECTION.
At the last Parliamentary election at Muddletown 5,473 votes were polled. The Liberal was elected by a
majority of 18 over the Conservative, by 146 over the Independent, and by 575 over the Socialist. Can you give a simple rule for figuring out how many votes were polled for each candidate?
1Q7._THE SUFFRAGISTS' MEETING.
At a recent secret meeting of Suffragists a serious difference of opinion arose. This led to a split, and a certain number left the meeting. "I had half a mind to go myself," said the chair-woman, "and if I had done so, two-thirds of us would have retired." "True," said another member; "but if I had persuaded my friends Mrs. Wild and Christine Armstrong to remain we should only have lost half our number." Can you tell how many were present at the meeting at the start?
108.?THE LEAP-YEAR LADIES.
Last leap-year ladies lost no time in exercising the privilege of making proposals of marriage. If the figures that reached me from an occult source are correct, the following represents the state of affairs in this country.
A number of women proposed once each, of whom one-eighth were widows. In consequence, a number of men were to be married of whom one-eleventh were widowers. Of the proposals made to widowers, one-fifth were declined. All the widows were accepted. Thirty-five forty-fourths of the widows married bachelors. One thousand two hundred and twenty-one spinsters were declined by bachelors. The number of spinsters accepted by bachelors was seven times the number of widows accepted by bachelors. Those are all the particulars that I was able to obtain. Now, how many women proposed?
109.?THE GREAT SCRAMBLE.
After dinner, the five boys of a household happened to find a parcel of sugar-plums. It was quite unexpected loot, and an exciting scramble ensued, the full details of which I will recount with accuracy, as it forms an interesting puzzle.
You see, Andrew managed to get possession of just two-thirds of the parcel of sugar-plums. Bob at once grabbed three-eighths of these, and Charlie managed to seize three-tenths also. Then young David dashed upon the scene, and captured all that Andrew had left, except one-seventh, which Edgar artfully secured for himself by a cunning trick. Now the fun began in real earnest, for Andrew and Charlie jointly set upon Bob, who stumbled against the fender and dropped half of all that he had, which were equally picked up by David and Edgar, who had crawled under a table and were waiting. Next, Bob sprang on Charlie from a chair, and upset all the latter's collection on to the floor. Of this prize Andrew got just a quarter, Bob gathered up one-third, David got two-sevenths, while Charlie and Edgar divided equally what was left of that stock.
Pg20
They were just thinking the fray was over when David suddenly struck out in two directions at once, upsetting three-quarters of what Bob and Andrew had last acquired. The two latter, with the greatest difficulty, recovered five-eighths of it in equal shares, but the three others each carried off one-fifth of the same. Every sugar-plum
was now accounted for, and they called a truce, and divided equally amongst them the remainder of the parcel. What is the smallest number of sugar-plums there could have been at the start, and what proportion did each boy obtain?
110.?THE ABBOT'S PUZZLE.
The first English puzzlist whose name has come down to us was a Yorkshireman?no other than Alcuin, Abbot of Canterbury (A.D. 735-804). Here is a little puzzle from his works, which is at least interesting on account of its antiquity. "If 100 bushels of corn were distributed among 100 people in such a manner that each man received three bushels, each woman two, and each child half a bushel, how many men, women, and children were there?"
Now, there are six different correct answers, if we exclude a case where there would be no women. But let us say that there were just five times as many women as men, then what is the correct solution?
111.?REAPING THE CORN.
