Amusements in Mathematics Part 19

The price of the banana must have been one penny farthing. Thus, 960 bananas would cost 5, and 480 sixpences would buy 2,304 bananas.

3.--AT A CATTLE MARKET.

Jakes must have taken 7 animals to market, Hodge must have taken 11, and Durrant must have taken 21. There were thus 39 animals altogether.

4.--THE BEANFEAST PUZZLE.

The cobblers spent 35s., the tailors spent also 35s., the hatters spent 42s., and the glovers spent 21s. Thus, they spent altogether 6,13s., while it will be found that the five cobblers spent as much as four tailors, twelve tailors as much as nine hatters, and six hatters as much as eight glovers.

5.--A QUEER COINCIDENCE.

Puzzles of this cla.s.s are generally solved in the old books by the tedious process of "working backwards." But a simple general solution is as follows: If there are n players, the amount held by every player at the end will be m(2^n), the last winner must have held m(n + 1) at the start, the next m(2n + 1), the next m(4n + 1), the next m(8n + 1), and so on to the first player, who must have held m(2^{n - 1}n + 1).

Thus, in this case, n = 7, and the amount held by every player at the end was 2^7 farthings. Therefore m = 1, and G started with 8 farthings, F with 15, E with 29, D with 57, C with 113, B with 225, and A with 449 farthings.

6.--A CHARITABLE BEQUEST.

There are seven different ways in which the money may be distributed: 5 women and 19 men, 10 women and 16 men, 15 women and 13 men, 20 women and 10 men, 25 women and 7 men, 30 women and 4 men, and 35 women and 1 man. But the last case must not be counted, because the condition was that there should be "men," and a single man is not men. Therefore the answer is six years.

7.--THE WIDOW'S LEGACY.

The widow's share of the legacy must be 205, 2s. 6d. and 10/13 of a penny.

8.--INDISCRIMINATE CHARITY The gentleman must have had 3s. 6d. in his pocket when he set out for home.

9.--THE TWO AEROPLANES.

The man must have paid 500 and 750 for the two machines, making together 1,250; but as he sold them for only 1,200, he lost 50 by the transaction.

10.--BUYING PRESENTS.

Jorkins had originally 19, 18s. in his pocket, and spent 9, 19s.

11.--THE CYCLISTS' FEAST.

There were ten cyclists at the feast. They should have paid 8s. each; but, owing to the departure of two persons, the remaining eight would pay 10s. each.

12.--A QUEER THING IN MONEY.

The answer is as follows: 44,444, 4s. 4d. = 28, and, reduced to pence, 10,666,612=28.

It is a curious little coincidence that in the answer 10,666,612 the four central figures indicate the only other answer, 66, 6s. 6d.

13.--A NEW MONEY PUZZLE.

The smallest sum of money, in pounds, s.h.i.+llings, pence, and farthings, containing all the nine digits once, and once only, is 2,567, 18s. 9d.

14.--SQUARE MONEY.

The answer is 1d. and 3d. Added together they make 4d., and 1d. multiplied by 3 is also 4d.

15.--POCKET MONEY.

The largest possible sum is 15s. 9d., composed of a crown and a half-crown (or three half-crowns), four florins, and a threepenny piece.

16.--THE MILLIONAIRE'S PERPLEXITY.

The answer to this quite easy puzzle may, of course, be readily obtained by trial, deducting the largest power of 7 that is contained in one million dollars, then the next largest power from the remainder, and so on. But the little problem is intended to ill.u.s.trate a simple direct method. The answer is given at once by converting 1,000,000 to the septenary scale, and it is on this subject of scales of notation that I propose to write a few words for the benefit of those who have never sufficiently considered the matter.

Our manner of figuring is a sort of perfected arithmetical shorthand, a system devised to enable us to manipulate numbers as rapidly and correctly as possible by means of symbols. If we write the number 2,341 to represent two thousand three hundred and forty-one dollars, we wish to imply 1 dollar, added to four times 10 dollars, added to three times 100 dollars, added to two times 1,000 dollars. From the number in the units place on the right, every figure to the left is understood to represent a multiple of the particular power of 10 that its position indicates, while a cipher (0) must be inserted where necessary in order to prevent confusion, for if instead of 207 we wrote 27 it would be obviously misleading. We thus only require ten figures, because directly a number exceeds 9 we put a second figure to the left, directly it exceeds 99 we put a third figure to the left, and so on. It will be seen that this is a purely arbitrary method. It is working in the denary (or ten) scale of notation, a system undoubtedly derived from the fact that our forefathers who devised it had ten fingers upon which they were accustomed to count, like our children of to-day. It is unnecessary for us ordinarily to state that we are using the denary scale, because this is always understood in the common affairs of life.

But if a man said that he had 6,553 dollars in the septenary (or seven) scale of notation, you will find that this is precisely the same amount as 2,341 in our ordinary denary scale. Instead of using powers of ten, he uses powers of 7, so that he never needs any figure higher than 6, and 6,553 really stands for 3, added to five times 7, added to five times 49, added to six times 343 (in the ordinary notation), or 2,341. To reverse the operation, and convert 2,341 from the denary to the septenary scale, we divide it by 7, and get 334 and remainder 3; divide 334 by 7, and get 47 and remainder 5; and so keep on dividing by 7 as long as there is anything to divide. The remainders, read backwards, 6, 5, 5, 3, give us the answer, 6,553.

Now, as I have said, our puzzle may be solved at once by merely converting 1,000,000 dollars to the septenary scale. Keep on dividing this number by 7 until there is nothing more left to divide, and the remainders will be found to be 11333311 which is 1,000,000 expressed in the septenary scale. Therefore, 1 gift of 1 dollar, 1 gift of 7 dollars, 3 gifts of 49 dollars, 3 gifts of 343 dollars, 3 gifts of 2,401 dollars, 3 gifts of 16,807 dollars, 1 gift of 117,649 dollars, and one substantial gift of 823,543 dollars, satisfactorily solves our problem. And it is the only possible solution. It is thus seen that no "trials" are necessary; by converting to the septenary scale of notation we go direct to the answer.

17.--THE PUZZLING MONEY BOXES.

The correct answer to this puzzle is as follows: John put into his money-box two double florins (8s.), William a half-sovereign and a florin (12s.), Charles a crown (5s.), and Thomas a sovereign (20s.). There are six coins in all, of a total value of 45s. If John had 2s. more, William 2s. less, Charles twice as much, and Thomas half as much as they really possessed, they would each have had exactly 10s.

18.--THE MARKET WOMEN.

The price received was in every case 105 farthings. Therefore the greatest number of women is eight, as the goods could only be sold at the following rates: 105 lbs. at 1 farthing, 35 at 3, 21 at 5, 15 at 7, 7 at 15, 5 at 21, 3 at 35, and 1 lb. at 105 farthings.

19.--THE NEW YEAR'S EVE SUPPERS.

The company present on the occasion must have consisted of seven pairs, ten single men, and one single lady. Thus, there were twenty-five persons in all, and at the prices stated they would pay exactly 5 together.

20.--BEEF AND SAUSAGES.

The lady bought 48 lbs. of beef at 2s., and the same quant.i.ty of sausages at 1s. 6d., thus spending 8, 8s. Had she bought 42 lbs. of beef and 56 lbs. of sausages she would have spent 4, 4s. on each, and have obtained 98 lbs. instead of 96 lbs.--a gain in weight of 2 lbs.

21.--A DEAL IN APPLES.

I was first offered sixteen apples for my s.h.i.+lling, which would be at the rate of ninepence a dozen. The two extra apples gave me eighteen for a s.h.i.+lling, which is at the rate of eightpence a dozen, or one penny a dozen less than the first price asked.

22.--A DEAL IN EGGS.

The man must have bought ten eggs at fivepence, ten eggs at one penny, and eighty eggs at a halfpenny. He would then have one hundred eggs at a cost of eight s.h.i.+llings and fourpence, and the same number of eggs of two of the qualities.

23.--THE CHRISTMAS-BOXES.

The distribution took place "some years ago," when the fourpenny-piece was in circulation. Nineteen persons must each have received nineteen pence. There are five different ways in which this sum may have been paid in silver coins. We need only use two of these ways. Thus if fourteen men each received four four-penny-pieces and one threepenny-piece, and five men each received five threepenny-pieces and one fourpenny-piece, each man would receive nineteen pence, and there would be exactly one hundred coins of a total value of 1, 10s. 1d.

24.--A SHOPPING PERPLEXITY.

The first purchase amounted to 1s. 5d., the second to 1s. 11d., and together they make 3s. 5d. Not one of these three amounts can be paid in fewer than six current coins of the realm.

25.--CHINESE MONEY.

As a ching-chang is worth twopence and four-fifteenths of a ching-chang, the remaining eleven-fifteenths of a ching-chang must be worth twopence. Therefore eleven ching-changs are worth exactly thirty pence, or half a crown. Now, the exchange must be made with seven round-holed coins and one square-holed coin. Thus it will be seen that 7 round-holed coins are worth seven-elevenths of 15 ching-changs, and 1 square-holed coin is worth one-eleventh of 16 ching-changs--that is, 77 rounds equal 105 ching-changs and 11 squares equal 16 ching-changs. Therefore 77 rounds added to 11 squares equal 121 ching-changs; or 7 rounds and 1 square equal 11 ching-changs, or its equivalent, half a crown. This is more simple in practice than it looks here.

26.--THE JUNIOR CLERKS' PUZZLE.

Although Snoggs's reason for wis.h.i.+ng to take his rise at 2, 10s. half-yearly did not concern our puzzle, the fact that he was duping his employer into paying him more than was intended did concern it. Many readers will be surprised to find that, although Moggs only received 350 in five years, the artful Snoggs actually obtained 362, 10s. in the same time. The rest is simplicity itself. It is evident that if Moggs saved 87, 10s. and Snoggs 181, 5s., the latter would be saving twice as great a proportion of his salary as the former (namely, one-half as against one-quarter), and the two sums added together make 268, 15s.

27.--GIVING CHANGE.

The way to help the American tradesman out of his dilemma is this. Describing the coins by the number of cents that they represent, the tradesman puts on the counter 50 and 25; the buyer puts down 100, 3, and 2; the stranger adds his 10, 10, 5, 2, and 1. Now, considering that the cost of the purchase amounted to 34 cents, it is clear that out of this pooled money the tradesman has to receive 109, the buyer 71, and the stranger his 28 cents. Therefore it is obvious at a glance that the 100-piece must go to the tradesman, and it then follows that the 50-piece must go to the buyer, and then the 25-piece can only go to the stranger. Another glance will now make it clear that the two 10-cent pieces must go to the buyer, because the tradesman now only wants 9 and the stranger 3. Then it becomes obvious that the buyer must take the 1 cent, that the stranger must take the 3 cents, and the tradesman the 5, 2, and 2. To sum up, the tradesman takes 100, 5, 2, and 2; the buyer, 50, 10, 10, and 1; the stranger, 25 and 3. It will be seen that not one of the three persons retains any one of his own coins.

28.--DEFECTIVE OBSERVATION.

Of course the date on a penny is on the same side as Britannia--the "tail" side. Six pennies may be laid around another penny, all flat on the table, so that every one of them touches the central one. The number of threepenny-pieces that may be laid on the surface of a half-crown, so that no piece lies on another or overlaps the edge of the half-crown, is one. A second threepenny-piece will overlap the edge of the larger coin. Few people guess fewer than three, and many persons give an absurdly high number.

29.--THE BROKEN COINS.

If the three broken coins when perfect were worth 253 pence, and are now in their broken condition worth 240 pence, it should be obvious that 13/253 of the original value has been lost. And as the same fraction of each coin has been broken away, each coin has lost 13/253 of its original bulk.

30.--TWO QUESTIONS IN PROBABILITIES.

In tossing with the five pennies all at the same time, it is obvious that there are 32 different ways in which the coins may fall, because the first coin may fall in either of two ways, then the second coin may also fall in either of two ways, and so on. Therefore five 2's multiplied together make 32. Now, how are these 32 ways made up? Here they are:-- (a) 5 heads 1 way (b) 5 tails 1 way (c) 4 heads and 1 tail 5 ways (d) 4 tails and 1 head 5 ways (e) 3 heads and 2 tails 10 ways (f) 3 tails and 2 heads 10 ways Now, it will be seen that the only favourable cases are a, b, c, and d--12 cases. The remaining 20 cases are unfavourable, because they do not give at least four heads or four tails. Therefore the chances are only 12 to 20 in your favour, or (which is the same thing) 3 to 5. Put another way, you have only 3 chances out of 8.

The amount that should be paid for a draw from the bag that contains three sovereigns and one s.h.i.+lling is 15s. 3d. Many persons will say that, as one's chances of drawing a sovereign were 3 out of 4, one should pay three-fourths of a pound, or 15s., overlooking the fact that one must draw at least a s.h.i.+lling--there being no blanks.

31.--DOMESTIC ECONOMY.

Without the hint that I gave, my readers would probably have been unanimous in deciding that Mr. Perkins's income must have been 1,710. But this is quite wrong. Mrs. Perkins says, "We have spent a third of his yearly income in rent," etc., etc.--that is, in two years they have spent an amount in rent, etc., equal to one-third of his yearly income. Note that she does not say that they have spent each year this sum, whatever it is, but that during the two years that amount has been spent. The only possible answer, according to the exact reading of her words, is, therefore, that his income was 180 per annum. Thus the amount spent in two years, during which his income has amounted to 360, will be 60 in rent, etc., 90 in domestic expenses, 20 in other ways, leaving the balance of 190 in the bank as stated.

32.--THE EXCURSION TICKET PUZZLE.

Nineteen s.h.i.+llings and ninepence may be paid in 458,908,622 different ways.

I do not propose to give my method of solution. Any such explanation would occupy an amount of s.p.a.ce out of proportion to its interest or value. If I could give within reasonable limits a general solution for all money payments, I would strain a point to find room; but such a solution would be extremely complex and c.u.mbersome, and I do not consider it worth the labour of working out.

Just to give an idea of what such a solution would involve, I will merely say that I find that, dealing only with those sums of money that are multiples of threepence, if we only use bronze coins any sum can be paid in (n + 1) ways where n always represents the number of pence. If threepenny-pieces are admitted, there are 2n + 15n + 33n --------------------- + 1 ways. 18 If sixpences are also used there are n^{4} + 22n + 159n + 414n + 216 --------------------------------- 216 ways, when the sum is a multiple of sixpence, and the constant, 216, changes to 324 when the money is not such a multiple. And so the formulas increase in complexity in an accelerating ratio as we go on to the other coins.

I will, however, add an interesting little table of the possible ways of changing our current coins which I believe has never been given in a book before. Change may be given for a Farthing in 0 way. Halfpenny in 1 way. Penny in 3 ways. Threepenny-piece in 16 ways. Sixpence in 66 ways. s.h.i.+lling in 402 ways. Florin in 3,818 ways. Half-crown in 8,709 ways. Double florin in 60,239 ways. Crown in 166,651 ways. Half-sovereign in 6,261,622 ways. Sovereign in 500,291,833 ways.

It is a little surprising to find that a sovereign may be changed in over five hundred million different ways. But I have no doubt as to the correctness of my figures.

33.--A PUZZLE IN REVERSALS.

(i) 13. (2) 23, 19s. 11d. The words "the number of pounds exceeds that of the pence" exclude such sums of money as 2, 16s. 2d. and all sums under 1.

34.--THE GROCER AND DRAPER.

The grocer was delayed half a minute and the draper eight minutes and a half (seventeen times as long as the grocer), making together nine minutes. Now, the grocer took twenty-four minutes to weigh out the sugar, and, with the half-minute delay, spent 24 min. 30 sec. over the task; but the draper had only to make _forty-seven_ cuts to divide the roll of cloth, containing forty-eight yards, into yard pieces! This took him 15 min. 40 sec., and when we add the eight minutes and a half delay we get 24 min. 10 sec., from which it is clear that the draper won the race by twenty seconds. The majority of solvers make forty-eight cuts to divide the roll into forty-eight pieces!

35.--JUDKINS'S CATTLE.

As there were five droves with an equal number of animals in each drove, the number must be divisible by 5; and as every one of the eight dealers bought the same number of animals, the number must be divisible by 8. Therefore the number must be a multiple of 40. The highest possible multiple of 40 that will work will be found to be 120, and this number could be made up in one of two ways--1 ox, 23 pigs, and 96 sheep, or 3 oxen, 8 pigs, and 109 sheep. But the first is excluded by the statement that the animals consisted of "oxen, pigs, and sheep," because a single ox is not oxen. Therefore the second grouping is the correct answer.

36.--BUYING APPLES.

As there were the same number of boys as girls, it is clear that the number of children must be even, and, apart from a careful and exact reading of the question, there would be three different answers. There might be two, six, or fourteen children. In the first of these cases there are ten different ways in which the apples could be bought. But we were told there was an equal number of "boys and girls," and one boy and one girl are not boys and girls, so this case has to be excluded. In the case of fourteen children, the only possible distribution is that each child receives one halfpenny apple. But we were told that each child was to receive an equal distribution of "apples," and one apple is not apples, so this case has also to be excluded. We are therefore driven back on our third case, which exactly fits in with all the conditions. Three boys and three girls each receive 1 halfpenny apple and 2 third-penny apples. The value of these 3 apples is one penny and one-sixth, which multiplied by six makes sevenpence. Consequently, the correct answer is that there were six children--three girls and three boys.

37.--BUYING CHESTNUTS.

In solving this little puzzle we are concerned with the exact interpretation of the words used by the buyer and seller. I will give the question again, this time adding a few words to make the matter more clear. The added words are printed in italics.

"A man went into a shop to buy chestnuts. He said he wanted a pennyworth, and was given five chestnuts. 'It is not enough; I ought to have a sixth of a chestnut more,' he remarked. 'But if I give you one chestnut more,' the shopman replied, 'you will have _five-sixths_ too many.' Now, strange to say, they were both right. How many chestnuts should the buyer receive for half a crown?"

The answer is that the price was 155 chestnuts for half a crown. Divide this number by 30, and we find that the buyer was ent.i.tled to 5+1/6 chestnuts in exchange for his penny. He was, therefore, right when he said, after receiving five only, that he still wanted a sixth. And the salesman was also correct in saying that if he gave one chestnut more (that is, six chestnuts in all) he would be giving five-sixths of a chestnut in excess.

38.--THE BICYCLE THIEF.

People give all sorts of absurd answers to this question, and yet it is perfectly simple if one just considers that the salesman cannot possibly have lost more than the cyclist actually stole. The latter rode away with a bicycle which cost the salesman eleven pounds, and the ten pounds "change;" he thus made off with twenty-one pounds, in exchange for a worthless bit of paper. This is the exact amount of the salesman's loss, and the other operations of changing the cheque and borrowing from a friend do not affect the question in the slightest. The loss of prospective profit on the sale of the bicycle is, of course, not direct loss of money out of pocket.

39.--THE COSTERMONGER'S PUZZLE.

Bill must have paid 8s. per hundred for his oranges--that is, 125 for 10s. At 8s. 4d. per hundred, he would only have received 120 oranges for 10s. This exactly agrees with Bill's statement.

40.--MAMMA'S AGE.

The age of Mamma must have been 29 years 2 months; that of Papa, 35 years; and that of the child, Tommy, 5 years 10 months. Added together, these make seventy years. The father is six times the age of the son, and, after 23 years 4 months have elapsed, their united ages will amount to 140 years, and Tommy will be just half the age of his father.

41.--THEIR AGES.

The gentleman's age must have been 54 years and that of his wife 45 years.

42.--THE FAMILY AGES.

The ages were as follows: Billie, 3 years; Gertrude, 1 year; Henrietta, 5 years; Charlie, 10; years; and Janet, 21 years.

43.--MRS. TIMPKINS'S AGE.

The age of the younger at marriage is always the same as the number of years that expire before the elder becomes twice her age, if he was three times as old at marriage. In our case it was eighteen years afterwards; therefore Mrs. Timpkins was eighteen years of age on the wedding-day, and her husband fifty-four.

44.--A CENSUS PUZZLE.

Miss Ada Jorkins must have been twenty-four and her little brother Johnnie three years of age, with thirteen brothers and sisters between. There was a trap for the solver in the words "seven times older than little Johnnie." Of course, "seven times older" is equal to eight times as old. It is surprising how many people hastily a.s.sume that it is the same as "seven times as old." Some of the best writers have committed this blunder. Probably many of my readers thought that the ages 24 and 3 were correct.

45.--MOTHER AND DAUGHTER.

In four and a half years, when the daughter will be sixteen years and a half and the mother forty-nine and a half years of age.

46.--MARY AND MARMADUKE.

Marmaduke's age must have been twenty-nine years and two-fifths, and Mary's nineteen years and three-fifths. When Marmaduke was aged nineteen and three-fifths, Mary was only nine and four-fifths; so Marmaduke was at that time twice her age.