How’s That Again?

The flat and clean properties of the glass surfaces keep air from entering between the plates, thus allowing the film of water to have maximum surface contact with the glass.

E4

If you thought the almost impossible can’t happen, consider the following scenario:

The scene is the closing stages of a World Cup final. Team A have made 250/9 off their 50 overs. Entering the last over at 250/0 with BOTH their openers not out at 120 each, Team B is all but holding the cup. Strangely (or shall we say, predictably) it’s Team A that does the victory lap! (The rules for tied scores decide the winner on lesser wickets lost.) Given that all the players were fit to play and no two batsmen returned to the pavilion in identical manner (caught being same whether by the keeper, bowler or rest), how did Team B manage to let the cup slip?

One answer goes something like this: the first ball is bowled and the first batsman gets caught. The second ball is bowled and the second batsman is bowled. The third ball is bowled and the third is out LBW. The fourth ball and the fourth is stumped. The fifth ball is bowled and the fifth batsman is run out. Now, five balls have been bowled and five wickets are down. Thus the bowler has to get five wickets in one ball. It can only be possible if the sixth batsman is out hit-wicket, the seventh handles the ball, the eighth obstructs the fielder, the ninth takes more than two minutes to come out to the field. The last four wickets fall in a fashion in which the ball is not considered. The tenth batsman hits the ball twice. Hence, five wickets down in one ball!

Is this solution more far-fetched than a falling star but still not impossible OR is there an error the size of Everest lurking somewhere in there?

DEAR MS

Man-Of-Letters-Dept:

The answer to the reader question is 5. Since there are six letters in 12, the first guest says 6. The same way, there are three letters in 6, so he answers 3. So the answer for 8 must be 5 and that is what Sheikh Sintha Mathar must have said.

•Afraz Ashfaq, ashafab24@gmail.com

(The problem was: “Why is it so difficult to separate two clean and flat glass plates when there is a thin film of water between them?” — MS)

Plate-Tectonics-Dept:

First, the flat and clean properties of the glass surfaces keep air from entering between the plates, thus allowing the film of water to have maximum surface contact with the glass. Second, it is the adhesive forces between the water and the glass plates that make the glass plates stick to the water and this force is stronger than the cohesive forces among the water molecules. Third, the water trapped between the glass plates has a lower pressure as compared to the atmospheric pressure. The outside pressure on the glass pushes the plates towards each other, thus requiring additional force to separate them.

•Ramesh Mahalingam, 
ramesh@idealmc.com

(Yes, Hemanth Reddy, hemanth97@gmail.com, you came pretty close to the answer also. Meanwhile the other problem was: “In karate, after delivering a chop, the hand is pulled back suddenly, whereas in boxing it isn’t. Why the difference?” — MS)

Fall-O-Thru-Dept:

When a boxer throws his fist, he usually ends the movement with a follow-through. This gives the punch maximum momentum, and it can help knock an opponent down. But the impact is meant to jar an opponent’s brain, not crack his skull. A karate chop, on the other hand, has no follow-through at all. It lashes out like a cobra and then withdraws instantly. When a black belt hits a slab of concrete for instance, his fist touches the block for fewer than five milliseconds, and yet the block breaks with a resounding crack.

•Saifuddin S F Khomosi, saif_sfk@hotmail.com

ENDGAME(S)

1. I was once x years old in the year x cube. I am now x square years of age and in another x years my only son will be y years of age in the year y square. In what year was I born?

2. At what distance from Earth is it possible to see exactly one-third of Earth’s surface?

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

• Mindsport