He said that he had enough farthings to supply a West End draper with
change for a week, and a sufficient number of threepenny pieces for the
congregations of three parish churches. "That excursion fare," said he,
"is nineteen shillings and ninepence, and I should like to know in just
how many different ways it is possible for such an amount to be paid in
the current coin of this realm."
Here, then, is a puzzle: In how many different ways may nineteen
shillings and ninepence be paid in our current coin? Remember that the
fourpenny-piece is not now current.
33.--PUZZLE IN REVERSALS.
Most people know that if you take any sum of money in pounds, shillings,
and pence, in which the number of pounds (less than L12) exceeds that of
the pence, reverse it (calling the pounds pence and the pence pounds),
find the difference, then reverse and add this difference, the result is
always L12, 18s. 11d. But if we omit the condition, "less than L12," and
allow nought to represent shillings or pence--(1) What is the lowest
amount to which the rule will not apply? (2) What is the highest amount
to which it will apply? Of course, when reversing such a sum as L14,
15s. 3d. it may be written L3, 16s. 2d., which is the same as L3, 15s.
14d.
34.--THE GROCER AND DRAPER.
A country "grocer and draper" had two rival assistants, who prided
themselves on their rapidity in serving customers. The young man on the
grocery side could weigh up two one-pound parcels of sugar per minute,
while the drapery assistant could cut three one-yard lengths of cloth in
the same time. Their employer, one slack day, set them a race, giving
the grocer a barrel of sugar and telling him to weigh up forty-eight
one-pound parcels of sugar While the draper divided a roll of
forty-eight yards of cloth into yard pieces. The two men were
interrupted together by customers for nine minutes, but the draper was
disturbed seventeen times as long as the grocer. What was the result of
the race?
35.--JUDKINS'S CATTLE.
Hiram B. Judkins, a cattle-dealer of Texas, had five droves of animals,
consisting of oxen, pigs, and sheep, with the same number of animals in
each drove. One morning he sold all that he had to eight dealers. Each
dealer bought the same number of animals, paying seventeen dollars for
each ox, four dollars for each pig, and two dollars for each sheep; and
Hiram received in all three hundred and one dollars. What is the
greatest number of animals he could have had? And how many would there
be of each kind?
36.--BUYING APPLES.
As the purchase of apples in small quantities has always presented
considerable difficulties, I think it well to offer a few remarks on
this subject. We all know the story of the smart boy who, on being told
by the old woman that she was selling her apples at four for threepence,
said: "Let me see! Four for threepence; that's three for twopence, two
for a penny, one for nothing--I'll take _one_!"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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