[tamil] Puzzles

[Ramanitharan Kandiah <rkandia@mailhost.tcs.tulane.edu>]

Came across a book, 'Puzzles for Super Brains' by Steve Odell (Ok! Ok!! it
is an old book, I agree).

Six puzzles from the book:-

1. Rational Thinking
with how few assistants can an intrepid explorer make a 
six-day crossing on foot of an absolutely barren desert, if he 
and the available assistants can each carry only enough food
and water to last one man four days? Look for the simplest
(humane!) solution.

2. Going Down
Two friends went down the descending escalator at one of
London's Underground stations. John walked down, taking
50 steps to reach the bottom; Peter ran down, taking 75. If I
tell you that Peter ran three steps in the time it took John to
walk one, can you tell me how many steps are visible when the 
escalator is stopped at night?

3. What's the time?
a. The hands of a clock being displayed for sale are set at just
before twenty past eight. Assuming that the two hands are the
same algle up from the six o'clock mark, exactly what is 
being shown?

b. An accurate wrist-watch had its hour, minitue and second
hands set to perfect time. One morning, just as the minitue 
hand was passing the hour hand, the watch suddently stopped
working. If the large second hand was left pointing between
the five and six minitue marks, can you work out the exact time
that the watch stopped?

4. Codebreaking 
The following epigram has been disguised in three ways.
First, all punctuation marks have been omitted. Secondly,
each letter in the original has been replaced by a coded
equivalent whereever it occurs, although in some cases a letter
is substituted for itself. Thirdly, the coded sequence of letters
has been divided into groups of four.
Can you break the code and read the verse?

ATXY IWON LVXH ZIWO QIAT MJFI UINJ VXKX
VATX VASA XNCL NATT IVJW IZXH VIAI XVAN
NECN HFVX WASA HNNP NCTN HVXS WFQT KATS
AGXS HWXF LNFK QSWA XFGN KSGA KANU SBLH
IFOX LNNY VSVZ XHKQ XGGF IVUX HWIW OTNQ
BJUT ATSA GNKS GLNF KQSW AXFG XSHW IWO

5. Differences
Can you find the two smallest whole numbers where the
difference of their squares is a cube, and the difference of
their cubes is a square?

6. Black or white?
A friend pours you a cup of freshly made coffee, but just as
you are about to add milk (which is at room temperature) you
are unexpectedly called away for a minitue or two. You naturally
wish that the coffee will be as hot as possible when you
come back to drink it. Is it better to add the milk before you
leave or should you wait and add the milk when you return?


I tried and successfully gave up.;-)

(Post your answers to tamil.net ; On coming Saturday, I will send the
answers given in the book).


n-adpudan,
Ramanitharan, K.
99/Aug/01, Sunday