In King Solomon’s Mines, the ceremony of the witch-hunt takes place during a full moon. The next day there’s a total eclipse of the sun, which can only happen at the new moon.

 

E4

Just because they happen to be literary giants doesn’t mean they can’t make mista-&kes. In fact, when they do, they make some real whoppers. Take Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe for instance, where the main character strips naked, swims out to the wrecked boat, and fills his pockets with food. Where did the pockets suddenly come from, in his birthday suit no less? In King Solomon’s Mines, the ceremony of the witch-hunt takes place during a full moon. The next day there’s a total eclipse of the sun, which can only happen at the new moon.

Hamlet’s soliloquy, “But that the dread of something after death, the undiscovered country from whose bourn no traveller returns” makes very little sense because his father did exactly that in the first act of the play itself when he effortlessly retur-ned from the dead as a ghost. And while we’re on that scene here’s another related blooper: Hamlet meeting with the ghost of his father begins at midnight and, after a few minutes of dialogue, ends as dawn is breaking. And finally, while we’re on Shakespeare, in Julius Caesar a clock striking the hour is mentioned.

Duh… the play takes place in ancient Rome, where there were no clocks!

However, speaking of clocks — a man didn’t have a wristwatch but he did have an accurate clock. Never-theless, he sometimes forgot to wind this clock. Once when it happened, he went to his sister’s house, spent the evening with her, went back home and set the clock. How could he do this without knowing beforehand the length of the trip?

DEAR MS

(The problem was: “Air is a gas, which means that its atoms and molecules are not in such close proximity to each other as in a solid and liquid. So why don’t air molecules just fall to the ground?” — MS)

What-A-Gas-Dept:

Air molecules do not fall down to the ground because of their inter-molecular force of &attraction. Their molecular characteristics helps them widen the gap in between every corresponding molecule, and as a result they occupy a much larger space and cover up everything available not falling apart.

• Bitu Nayak, 2998b2nayak2998@gmail.com

Who says that air molecules don’t fall to the ground because of gravity? They do, which is why the atmosphere at sea level is denser and has more pressure than at higher altitudes. In fact, it is because of gravity that we have an atmosphere at all! But all molecules don’t fall to the ground because of their kinetic energy, acquired essentially from the sun’s radiation and from the Earth’s surface.

• Altaf Ahmed, ctrlaltaf@yahoo.in

 (The other problem was: “Two guys order two drinks which, unknown to them, are laced with identical amounts of poison. One gulps his down and lives; the other sips his slowly and dies. What could be the reason?” — MS)

One-Man’s-Poison-Dept:

It was a slow releasing poison and the easiest solution, therefore, is that the poison was in the core of ice cubes. The guy who gulped it down quickly didn’t give the ice enough time to melt and release the poison there was in the core.

• Akash Jain, kajain99@gmail.com

The poison was laced inside the ice-cube in the drink. The first person gulped it down fast and the poison didn’t get a chance to mix well with the drink. The second waited till the ice melted enough for the poison to mix. (Wasn’t that the subliminal hint from the title “Breaking the Ice”?)

• Seshadri Nathan, seshnath@gmail.com

 ENDGAME(S)

1.   2015 represented in binary is palindromic as it’s 11111011111. The next such year will be 2047, which is 11111111111. When was the last such year it happened?

2.   Twins Alan and Bob were born two hours apart, Alan being the older twin. However, Alan cele-brated his 21^st birthday two days after Bob. How is this possible? 

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

• Mindsport