On the question of Mathematical Puzzles in general there is, perhaps,
little more to be said than I have written elsewhere. The history of the
subject entails nothing short of the actual story of the beginnings and
development of exact thinking in man. The historian must start from the
time when man first succeeded in counting his ten fingers and in
dividing an apple into two approximately equal parts. Every puzzle that
is worthy of consideration can be referred to mathematics and logic.
Every man, woman, and child who tries to "reason out" the answer to the
simplest puzzle is working, though not of necessity consciously, on
mathematical lines. Even those puzzles that we have no way of attacking
except by haphazard attempts can be brought under a method of what has
been called "glorified trial"--a system of shortening our labours by
avoiding or eliminating what our reason tells us is useless. It is, in
fact, not easy to say sometimes where the "empirical" begins and where
it ends.
When a man says, "I have never solved a puzzle in my life," it is
difficult to know exactly what he means, for every intelligent
individual is doing it every day. The unfortunate inmates of our lunatic
asylums are sent there expressly because they cannot solve
puzzles--because they have lost their powers of reason. If there were no
puzzles to solve, there would be no questions to ask; and if there were
no questions to be asked, what a world it would be! We should all be
equally omniscient, and conversation would be useless and idle.
It is possible that some few exceedingly sober-minded mathematicians,
who are impatient of any terminology in their favourite science but the
academic, and who object to the elusive x and y appearing under any
other names, will have wished that various problems had been presented
in a less popular dress and introduced with a less flippant phraseology.
I can only refer them to the first word of my title and remind them that
we are primarily out to be amused--not, it is true, without some hope of
picking up morsels of knowledge by the way. If the manner is light, I
can only say, in the words of Touchstone, that it is "an ill-favoured
thing, sir, but my own; a poor humour of mine, sir."
As for the question of difficulty, some of the puzzles, especially in
the Arithmetical and Algebraical category, are quite easy. Yet some of
those examples that look the simplest should not be passed over without
a little consideration, for now and again it will be found that there is
some more or less subtle pitfall or trap into which the reader may be
apt to fall. It is good exercise to cultivate the habit of being very
wary over the exact wording of a puzzle. It teaches exactitude and
caution. But some of the problems are very hard nuts indeed, and not
unworthy of the attention of the advanced mathematician. Readers will
doubtless select according to their individual tastes.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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