Anyway, the 12 given below require neither Ludwig Wittgenstein’s wig nor Stephen Haw-king’s hawk. They’re kind of way, way on the middle high ground. In other words, I expect at least one or two people to get at least 90 per cent correct, if not hit a hot hunner.

E4

You know how the following is done since you’ve done it before right here. For example: Nose is to Smell as Ear is to…? And of course the answer is Hear. Too babyish? Okay then take this: Lenin is to Pseudonymous as Leningrad is to…? That got you didn’t it? Well, the answer’s Eponymous. Want an even tougher one? Here it comes: Four-sided Polyhedron is to Tetrahedron as four-dimensional Hypercube is to…? Tesseract!

Anyway, the 12 given below require neither Ludwig Wittgenstein’s wig nor Stephen Haw-king’s hawk. They’re kind of way, way on the middle high ground. In other words, I expect at least one or two people to get at least 90 per cent correct, if not hit a hot hunner.

(1) Sailor is to Ship as Paramedic is to? (2) Leaves is to Deciduous as Branches is to? &(3) Longitude is to Meridian as Latitude is to? (4) Nerve is to Neuro as Kidney is to ? (5) Moon is to Planet as Planet is to? (6) Paper is to Origami as Flowers is to? (7) Garment is to Tailor as Candles is to ? (8) Mathematics is to Dodgson as Wonderland is to? (9) Firm is to Flabby as Piquant is to? (10) Geometric Forms is to Cubism as Dots of Colour is to?(11) Swarm is to Bee as Murder is to? (12) Graveyard Of Planes is to Bermuda as Graveyard Of Ships is to?

 DEAR MS

(The spillover problem was: “What is a common three-letter non-slang English word which has no vowels or even any semi-vowels like y or win it. Incidentally, all standard dictionaries — either online or offline — list it. And no, it’s not an exclamation, interjection or onomatopoeic concoction either.” A lot of people wrote in with “tsk” “tut”, “hmm”, “tsp”, etc, some of which are also in some dictionaries. But these are either interjections, abbreviations, slang or non-standard. Very few got the correct answer, as, for example, the following. — MS)

Cwm-Is-Not-One-Dept:

Most of the words, without vowels, still contain Y or W. Two words come to my mind — “mrs” and “nth”.

• Saikrishna S, saikrishna.s1998@gmail.com

(Sorry SS but “mrs” will not do, as it’s an abbreviation of mistress. But “nth” is correct. — MS)

(The other puzzle was: “Almost everybody knows Earth is not a true sphere. That is, it’s a little oval-ish in shape. While this is true, how did the Earth get to be this way? — MS)

Big-Fat-Earth-Dept:

The Earth is an oblate spheroid. That is, it’s a sphere that is slightly flattened at the poles and bulging at the equator. This happens because of the planet’s rotation. Because planets spin so fast, centrifugal forces cause them to bulge out at the equator and flatten at the poles. Something like when you spin, and your shirt swings outwards.

• Dhruv Narayan, dhruv510@gmail.com

The Earth is rotating on its axis. Due to this, its spherical shape gets distorted by centrifugal force. The centrifugal force causes an object to move outward away from the centre of gravity and it is greater at the equator, which bulges outwards, and the poles get somewhat flattened. The result is the Earth becoming a little oval-ish in shape.

• Abhay Prakash, abhayprakash@hotmail.com     

 (Yes DN and AP, the Earth is slightly oblate — that is, flattened at the poles — with the equatorial diameter being about 12,756km and the polar diameter about 12,713km. This is because the Earth spins quite rapidly on its axis. Also, during the early days of its formation, when its structure was less rigid than it is now — when it was half molten and semi-solid — the spinning gave rise to outwardly directed centrifugal forces that made it bulge even more at the equator. — MS)

ENDGAME(S)

1.   What three sports are played moving backwards? Also, in which sport do the winners move backwards and the losers move forwards?

2.   What’s the next word in the series: India, Victor, X-ray, Lima, Charlie, …?

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

• Mindsport