Overlook is Another

A deaf person robs some belongings of a blind man. A dumb person sees this. Now, how can he tell the blind person that the deaf person is the thief?

E4

What do the words BUCKLE, CLIP, COOL, CUT, DUST, FAST, FIX, LEFT, PRESENTLY, REFRAIN, RIOT, ROOT, SCAN and SKIN have in common? Well, they’re called “cleave” or “Janus” words which can often also mean the opposite of themselves. For instance: BUCKLE: to hold together (eg, buckle up) vs to fall apart (eg, buckle under); CLIP: to attach vs to cut off; COOL: positive sense (cool web-sites) vs negative sense (cool reception); CUT: get in (as in line or queue) vs get out (as in class); DUST: to remove dust vs to apply dust (as in fingerprinting); FAST: moving rapidly vs unable to move (“I was held fast to my bed”); FIX: to restore to function (fixing the refrigerator) vs to make non-functional (fixing the dog); LEFT: to remain vs to have gone (“Of all who came, only Fred’s left”); PRESENTLY: now vs after some time; REFRAIN: to repeat (“It’s his old refrain as usual”) vs to stop (refrain from using bad language); RIOT: disorder vs revelry (it was a riot); ROOT: to establish (the seed took root) vs to remove entirely (root dissenters out); SCAN: to examine closely vs to look over cursorily; SKIN: to cover with a skin vs to remove outer covering or skin.

GOODS, POLICY, RAVEL and REPLACE are four more. See if you can work them out.

Meanwhile, here’s something that you really need to wrap your head around. A deaf person robs some belongings of a blind man. A dumb person sees this. Now, how can he tell the blind person that the deaf person is the thief? Make no assumption like having any other person around to help. Think on . . .

DEAR MS

Not-Before-Long-Dept:

Only two people got the problem of the coloured strings and triangles which we ran a few weeks back — Dhurjati Sen, dhurjatidhurjati@gmail.com and Dhruv Narayan, dhruv510@gmail.com. Unfortunately we can’t run either since both are way too long to fit in economically. Sorry people, I know it’s not your fault; the problem called the shots as such.

(The problem was: “If you are a swimmer, then you know that you can see much better underwater if you wear goggles. Why?” — MS)

Water-Sight-To-See-Dept:

The refractive index of a substance refers to how much slower light travels in it. For instance, the refractive index of air is approximately 1, while that of water is 1.333 and thus the image is not formed exactly on the retina. With goggles however, our eyes are not in contact with water anymore, and we are already used to the air near our eyes, since we have been processing that light from birth onwards.

•Navjot Singh Bains, nbains100@gmail.com

(The other problem was: “If you try to pull a reel of thread that’s rolled under a piece of furniture by pulling the thread horizontally, the reel rolls out easily. But try pulling the thread at an angle and the reel rolls even deeper under the furniture. Why?”— MS)

Pulling-Strings Dept:

Pulling the thread at an angle induces a moment of force on the reel causing it to either roll deeper in/out or towards you depending on whether the thread being pulled is tangent to the reel about its bottom or top portion of the circumference. The ‘moment’ on the reel has a similar effect to that of a lever used to prise open a container lid or a crowbar used to move stones, etc. When pulled horizontally, with the thread on the top surface, the reel unwinds and rolls towards you; with the thread tangent at the bottom, the initial pulling force is sufficient to cause the reel to overcome frictional resistance and roll towards you.

•Subin, sbn_vtl@yahoo.co.in

ENDGAME(S)

1. When a person is thrown in judo, he invariably slaps the floor or mat at the moment of impact to prevent injury. How does that work?

2. To create special effects some rock guitarists sometimes play facing into their own speakers to produce an extra ringing sound.

What causes this?

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

• Mindsport