Can You Read This?

If your English is good, then the spellings don’t really matter so long as the first and last letters are correct.

E4

Want to have a bit of fun wondering what this thing called a brain is, and why you had to go to school where they told you that spelling was important, when, apparently, it isn’t if you believe in the second paragraph? So read on, because the theory is, if your English is good, then the spellings don’t really matter so long as the first and last letters are correct. Try it.

You arne’t ginog to blveiee taht you can aculalty uesdnatnrd waht I am wirtnig. Beuacse of the phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn’t mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe.

Amzanig huh? Yaeh and you awlyas tghuhot slpeling was ipmorantt!

Meanwhile here’s a reader submission by Sheikh Sintha Mathar, sheikhsm7@gmail.com:

A guest knocked on a security gate and the doorman said “12” to which the guest replied “6” and he was let in. A second guest approached the gate and the doorman said “6”. The guest replied “3” and was let in, too. On watching this, I walked up to the gate. The doorman said “8” to which I replied “4”. But unfortunately I was not let in. What should I have said to gain entry inside?

DEAR MS

(The problem was: “If 1904 was leap year and if leap years recur every four years, then why wasn’t 1900 a leap year too? — MS)

Leap-Of-Faith-Dept:

A normal year is defined as 365 days. However, if you measure the exact amount of time it takes for the Earth to orbit the sun, the number is actually 365.242199 days. By adding one extra day to every fourth year, we get an average of 365.25 days per year, which is fairly close to the actual number. To get even closer to the actual number, every 100 years is not a leap year, but every 400 years is a leap year. That brings the average length of the year to 365.2425 days, which is very close to the actual number. Putting all of these rules together, you can see that a year is a leap year not only if it is divisible by 4 — it also has to be divisible by 400 if it is a centurial year. So 1700, 1800 and 1900 were not leap years, but 2000 was.

•Vanessa Fernandes, vanessaferns2002@gmail.com (Yes, Pravin Kannan, pravinkannan123@gmail.com and Pooja Vinod, pooja-vinod@hotmail.com, you got it right too — MS)

(The other question was: “What makes the flag of Paraguay unique among flags of all other countries of the world?” — MS)

Is-It-That-Obverse-Dept:

It is unusual because it differs on the obverse and reverse sides. The only other national flags that share this feature are those of Moldova and Saudi Arabia. However, both have a mirror image on the reverse, while the flag of Paraguay has a completely different image.

•S Murali Kumar, siruguri2001@gmail.com

The flag of Paraguay is unique because it’s different on the obverse and reverse sides.

•Mukul Goray, goraymukul@gmail.com

(No one got the juggled proverbs puzzle all correct. The following came the closest. — MS)

Pro-Verbs-Dept:

(1) Beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder; (2) Here today, gone tomorrow; (3) Pride comes before a fall; (4) A penny saved is a penny earned; (5) You can catch a cricket in your hand but its song is all over the field. — Saifuddin S F Khomosi, saif_sfk@hotmail.com (Nice try on #5 double-SFK, but the correct answer is: There’s many a slip bet-ween the cup and the lip. — MS)

ENDGAME(S)

1. In karate, after delivering a chop, the hand is pulled back suddenly, whereas in boxing it isn’t. Why the difference?

2. Why is it so difficult to separate two clean and flat glass plates when there is a thin film of water between them?

(To get in touch with Mukul, mail him at mukul.mindsport@gmail.com)

• Mindsport