The Cushion Covers.
The above represents a square of brocade. A lady wishes to cut it in
four pieces so that two pieces will form one perfectly square cushion
top, and the remaining two pieces another square cushion top. How is sh...
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The Grasshopper Puzzle.
It has been suggested that this puzzle was a great favourite among the
young apprentices of the City of London in the sixteenth and seventeenth
centuries. Readers will have noticed the curious brass grasshopper...
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The Monk's Puzzle
The Monk that went with the party was a great lover of sport. "Greyhounds he had as swift as fowl of flight: Of riding and of hunting for the hare Was all his love, for no cost would he spare." ...
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The Beanfeast Puzzle.
A number of men went out together on a bean-feast. There were four
parties invited--namely, 25 cobblers, 20 tailors, 18 hatters, and 12
glovers. They spent altogether L6, 13s. It was found that five cobblers
sp...
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Two New Magic Squares.
Construct a subtracting magic square with the first sixteen whole
numbers that shall be "associated" by _subtraction_. The constant is, of
course, obtained by subtracting the first number from the second in
lin...
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The Fly On The Octahedron.
"Look here," said the professor to his colleague, "I have been watching
that fly on the octahedron, and it confines its walks entirely to the
edges. What can be its reason for avoiding the sides?"
"Perhaps it i...
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A Puzzling Watch.
A friend pulled out his watch and said, "This watch of mine does not
keep perfect time; I must have it seen to. I have noticed that the
minute hand and the hour hand are exactly together every sixty-five
minute...
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The Grand Lama's Problem.
Once upon a time there was a Grand Lama who had a chessboard made of
pure gold, magnificently engraved, and, of course, of great value. Every
year a tournament was held at Lhassa among the priests, and whenever...
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The Sixteen Sheep.
[Illustration:
+========================+
|| | | | ||
|| 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 ||
+-----+-----+-----+------+
|| | | | ||
|| 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 ||
+====...
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Chessboard Solitaire.
Here is an extension of the last game of solitaire. All you need is a
chessboard and the thirty-two pieces, or the same number of draughts or
counters. In the illustration numbered counters are used. The puzzle...
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The Compasses Puzzle.
It is curious how an added condition or restriction will sometimes
convert an absurdly easy puzzle into an interesting and perhaps
difficult one. I remember buying in the street many years ago a little
mechanic...
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The Pierrot's Puzzle.
The Pierrot in the illustration is standing in a posture that represents
the sign of multiplication. He is indicating the peculiar fact that 15
multiplied by 93 produces exactly the same figures (1,395), differ...
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Lions And Crowns.
The young lady in the illustration is confronted with a little
cutting-out difficulty in which the reader may be glad to assist her.
She wishes, for some reason that she has not communicated to me, to cut
that ...
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The Great Monad.
Here is a symbol of tremendous antiquity which is worthy of notice. It
is borne on the Korean ensign and merchant flag, and has been adopted as
a trade sign by the Northern Pacific Railroad Company, though prob...
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The Chinese Chessboard.
Into how large a number of different pieces may the chessboard be cut
(by cuts along the lines only), no two pieces being exactly alike?
Remember that the arrangement of black and white constitutes a
difference...
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The Christmas Geese
Squire Hembrow, from Weston Zoyland—wherever that may be—proposed the following little arithmetical puzzle, from which it is probable that several somewhat similar modern ones have been derive...
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A Post-office Perplexity.
In every business of life we are occasionally perplexed by some chance
question that for the moment staggers us. I quite pitied a young lady in
a branch post-office when a gentleman entered and deposited a crow...
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The Honeycomb Puzzle.
Here is a little puzzle with the simplest possible conditions. Place the
point of your pencil on a letter in one of the cells of the honeycomb,
and trace out a very familiar proverb by passing always from a cel...
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The Century Puzzle.
Can you write 100 in the form of a mixed number, using all the nine
digits once, and only once? The late distinguished French mathematician,
Edouard Lucas, found seven different ways of doing it, and expressed ...
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Concerning Tommy's Age.
Tommy Smart was recently sent to a new school. On the first day of his
arrival the teacher asked him his age, and this was his curious reply:
"Well, you see, it is like this. At the time I was born--I forget th...
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Informational
