Saying the Same Thing

Ann chases a bee that has gotten into her house. When she skilfully catches it, her boyfriend hugs her and says, “You know something? Your eye is gorgeous.”

E4

This week’s conundrums are for those vocab wizards, who wilt for want of wordy victuals. So check it out. A well-known saying, adage, proverb, saw, maxim or motto fits each of the following strange situations. The saying often fits the situation only by using homonyms, homophones, synonyms or by warping the original meaning of the saying. For instance: “The prospector excavated the ore out of the quarry all right, but on coming home, promptly forgot from where it had been extracted.” Answer: Out of sight (site) out of mind (mined). Now see if you can do these other five.

(1) Ann chases a bee that has gotten into her house. When she skilfully catches it, her boyfriend hugs her and says, “You know something? Your eye is gorgeous.” (2) A deaf man awakens one day to find that his hearing has returned. The next day he 
leaves town on vacation to celebrate this miraculous occurrence. (3) A bunch of lions leave the game reserve before autumn comes. (4) Eric used a one cent coupon at the grocery store. At work the next day, he noticed a one cent raise in his pay check. (5) Last batsman Dilip has to just snick the ball and score one run in order for his team to lift the Gold Cup. But alas, there are simply too many fielders there.

DEAR MS

Moonlit-Eclipse-Dept:

The question in Endgame was: “How can one make out from a photograph whether it’s a full moon partially eclipsed or a normal moon which is not full?” I read a reply talking about a red hue due to atmospheric scattering, but here is another more basic one. In a crescent moon, the curve demarcating bright and dark areas (one half of the outline) is an ellipse with its end points diametrically opposite. In a lunar eclipse, the shadow appears from Earth as part of a circle with the end points not on a diameter.

•Suresh Jacob, sarasjac@hotmail.com

(The question was: “If you discover yourself stuck in quicksand, why is lying down on your back the best thing to do?” — MS)

Faster-Than-Sand-Dept:

We sink in quicksand because of the pressure our body weight applies to the surface of the quicksand. Pressure is given by the equation P = F/A, where F is force and A is area — i.e., pressure is inversely proportional to area. So by lying on our backs we increase the amount of surface area in contact with the quicksand, thus reducing the rate of sinking into it.

•Sourav Adhikari, mechiku@gmail.com

It is best lying down on your back because in this position you are spread across a wider area, thereby making yourself lighter, considering the pressure you exert per sq cm.

•R K Bhagat, r6k7b@yahoo.com

(The other problem was: “A bear was once loitering near the edge of a cliff and suddenly slipped and fell down 20m in two seconds. What was the colour of the bear?”— MS)

Bear-With-Us-Dept:

The facts provided point toward a black bear. Black bears are known to be short-sighted and when a bear forages close to the ground, a misstep is likely, especially if the edge of the cliff is covered by foliage. The speed of the fall suggests it is not a low-gravity polar region where the speed of the fall would have been slower than 20m in 2s, thus ruling out a polar bear.

•Ramesh S Mahalingam, ramesh@idealmc.com (No RSM, polar regions are actually higher gravity. — MS)

When the bear falls 20 m (S) in just 2 seconds (t) the acceleration due to gravity (g) of the region is 10m/s^2 as per the formula S = ut + 1/2gt^2. As the value of g is more than its normal value, the region must be polar and the colour of the bear must be white.

•Vinod Kumar, kumarkbvinod@rediffmail.com

ENDGAME

1. What makes the flag of Paraguay unique among flags of all other countries of the world?

2. If 1904 was a leap year and if leap years recur every four years, then why wasn’t 1900 a leap year too?

(Mail Mukul at mukul.mindsport@gmail.com)

• Mindsport