The sum of all the weighings, 61 lbs., includes sack No. 3 _thrice_ and
each other _twice_. Deducting twice the sum of the 1st and 4th
weighings, we get 21 lbs. for _thrice_ No. 3, _i.e._, 7 lbs. for No. 3.
Hence, the 2nd and 3rd weighings give 6-1/2 lbs., 4-1/2 lbs. for Nos. 2,
4; and hence again, the 1st and 4th weighings give 5-1/2 lbs., 3-1/2
lbs., for Nos. 1, 5.
* * * * *
Ninety-seven answers have been received. Of these, 15 are beyond the
reach of discussion, as they give no working. I can but enumerate their
names, and I take this opportunity of saying that this is the last time
I shall put on record the names of competitors who give no sort of clue
to the process by which their answers were obtained. In guessing a
conundrum, or in catching a flea, we do not expect the breathless victor
to give us afterwards, in cold blood, a history of the mental or
muscular efforts by which he achieved success; but a mathematical
calculation is another thing. The names of this "mute inglorious" band
are COMMON SENSE, D. E. R., DOUGLAS, E. L., ELLEN, I. M. T., J. M. C.,
JOSEPH, KNOT I, LUCY, MEEK, M. F. C., PYRAMUS, SHAH, VERITAS.
Of the eighty-two answers with which the working, or some approach to
it, is supplied, one is wrong: seventeen have given solutions which are
(from one cause or another) practically valueless: the remaining
sixty-four I shall try to arrange in a Class-list, according to the
varying degrees of shortness and neatness to which they seem to have
attained.
The solitary wrong answer is from NELL. To be thus "alone in the crowd"
is a distinction--a painful one, no doubt, but still a distinction. I am
sorry for you, my dear young lady, and I seem to hear your tearful
exclamation, when you read these lines, "Ah! This is the knell of all my
hopes!" Why, oh why, did you assume that the 4th and 5th bags weighed 4
lbs. each? And why did you not test your answers? However, please try
again: and please don't change your _nom-de-plume_: let us have NELL in
the First Class next time!
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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