The Answer in Question

Want some answers to begin with? All right, how would you pick up a shoelace by its two ends between your two index fingers and thumbs of your two hands and then make a knot in it without letting go?

E4

Answer: Cross your hands before picking it up then uncross them. Next: There are two cans of water. You have to pour them into a larger barrel in such a way that you can tell which water came from which can. How? Answer: Freeze them. If you’re already groaning around the place and want to gross out totally instead, then can you think of any industry that uses a disassembly line? Answer: Meat packing industry.

One more? What makes the number 1,264,853,971.2758463 so unique? (Here’s a hint; it’s actually a kind of poem!) Answer: It’s a famous mathematical limerick by Leigh Mercer. The number can be read as: One thousand two hundred and sixty-/ Four million eight hundred and fifty-/ Three thousand nine hun-/ Dred and seventy-one/ Point two seven five eight four six three. Another? Write any number in words and count the letters. Write down that number in words again. Count the letters again. Write down again. Count again. You’ll always end up in 4. For instance ‘twenty’ has six letters; ‘six’ has three; ‘three’ has five; ‘five’ has four has four has four has four. Why? Because it’s the only number which when written in words uses four letters.

But some questions now. 370 is the smallest number which is the sum of the cubes of each of its digits. There are only three such numbers. You probably have no idea what the largest is without scramming to a computer program but do you know the middle one? And finally: If nitrogen is lighter than oxygen then why hasn’t it accumulated at the top of the atmosphere?

DEAR MS

Guesting-Game-Dept:

Ralph and Bea Vogel arrived on Monday, Aug 20, and left on Friday, Aug 24. Lisa Duval arrived on Tuesday, Aug 21, and left on Thursday, Aug 23. Andrew and Kathy Newton arrived on Friday, Aug 24, and left on Tuesday, Aug 28. John Soames arrived on Saturday, Aug 25, and left on Monday, Aug 27. Veronica McCarthy arrived on Monday, Aug 27, and left on Friday, Aug 31.

• Altaf Ahmed, ctrlaltaf@yahoo.in

(The problem was: “A number of cats killed 1,111,111 mice, every cat being responsible for an equal number of mice. As there were more mice killed by each cat than there were cats, how many cats were there in all?”— MS)

Cat-And-Mouse-Dept:

I looked for the factors of the number 1,111,111 and worked through the list of prime numbers ending in 1,3,7 and 9 (because each factor must have one of these as the last digit in order to end in 1). The first such prime number that did the job was 239 (cats) yielding a quotient of 4,649 (the larger figure being the number of mice killed per cat). Must say, it’s not just the cats that had indigestion!

• Ramesh Mahalingam, ramesh@idealmc.com

If we assume that there are x cats and y mice, then we have xy = 1,111,111 as each cat is responsible for equal number of mice. The only solution is 239 x 4649 = 1,111,1111 because both 239 and 4649 are prime numbers. Also, since the number of mice killed by each cat is more than the number of cats, obviously the number of cats is 239.

• Harmeet Kohli, harmeet09@gmail.com

(The other problem was: “What is the most “striking” anagram of: MAN LAUNCHES HARD STRIKE?” — MS)

Thunder-Struck-Dept:

The “striking” solution for the anagram is: SACHIN RAMESH TENDULKAR.

• Vanessa Fernandes, vanessaferns2002@gmail.com

ENDGAME(S)

1. The earlier problem was: How many times in a 24-hour period do the hour and minute hands of an analogue clock overlap? And the answer was 22. So here’s a twist: how many times in the same period do the hour, minute and second hands overlap?

2. And since we are on clocks, why is it that all clocks only run clockwise?

(To get in touch, email Mukul at mukul.mindsport@gmail.com)

• Mindsport