The Write Card

Finally, match it with what's written on the piece of paper in the person's pocket and either look like a fool who didn't know what to write on it in the beginning or walk out into infinite bliss.

E4
Try this if you have a bunch of people panting for you to perform some meaningless card trick: ask one of them to shuffle the deck and keep it on the table. Meanwhile, write something on a piece of paper and put it in another person's pocket. Next, deal 12 cards face down and ask someone else to touch any four of them. After turning these cards face up, gather the rest and return them to the bottom of the pack. Let's say, the four face-up cards are the three, six, 10 and Jack. Tell them that you're now going to deal cards on top of each of the four so as to bring the total of each pile up to 10. In other words, you deal seven cards on top of the three, four cards on the six and none on the ten or Jack because 10 is already 10 and picture cards also count as 10.
Tell yet another person to add up the total value of the four original face up cards. This comes to 3 + 6 + 10 + 10 = 29. Hand the pack over to a third person and tell her to count to the 29^th card and turn it over. Finally, match it with what's written on the piece of paper in the person's pocket and either look like a fool who didn't know what to write on it in the beginning, or walk out into infinite bliss while leaving the terminally brain damaged to pick up the pieces of their carefully filigreed world which has suddenly collapsed like confetti around them.
DEAR MS
(The problem was: how to know if you can draw a certain figure without lifting the pencil off the paper or going over a line twice. - MS)
Figure-It-Out Dept:
Count all the vertices in the figure. Count how many lines meet at each vertex and note whether that number is even or odd. Count how many vertices have an odd number of lines going into them. If the number is more than two, then the figure cannot be drawn.
Narayana Murty Karri, k_n_murty@yahoo.com
(The other problem concerned why, as a child grows, its navel - which is basically a hole in the body - doesn't grow proportionally. - MS)
Whole-Problem Dept:
The navel is NOT a part of the body. It is a well-known fact that only parts of the body grow till some age. Moreover, the orifices are made up of mucus, which is a kind of elastic material that can expand/contract as per need, and at the time of any such need, rather than growing in size, can also shrink along with age.
Chandrasekhar Karri, karri.kmds@gmail.com
(The last problem was: "Fighter planes use flares to avoid missiles fired at them. Wouldn't a flare, in fact, give away a reading to their approximate location?" - MS)
Fighter-Flair Dept:
A flare is an aerial counter-measure used by a plane against an infrared heat-seeking missile. The aim is to make the infrared guided missile seek out the heat signature from the flare instead of the aircraft's engines. The aircraft would then pull away at a sharp angle from the flare and also the terminal trajectory of the missile. It also reduces engine power in an attempt to cool the thermal signature. The missile gets confused by this change in temperature and therefore follows the flare instead of the aircraft.
Saifuddin S F Khomosi, saif_sfk@hotmail.com
Fighter planes use flares to avoid missiles fired at them. This function is also used to prevent their own countrymen/allies from firing at them - so letting them know their location is actually the whole point!
Calvin Dani, calvinthomas.dani@hotmail.com
ENDGAME(S)
1. What are the next two numbers in the series: 202, 122, 232, 425, 262, 728, . ?
2. A man travels in his car from point A on one hill, down to the plains, and climbs to point B on a second hill. His speed down the hill is 72km/h, on level road it's 63km/h and up the hill it is 56km/h. He takes 4 hours to travel from point A to B and 4 hours and 40 minutes to travel from point B to point A. What is the total distance between point A and B?
(To get in touch with Mukul, mail him at ?mukul.mindsport@gmail.com)

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