| New Scientist | 7 September 2019The back pages Puzzles
Cryptic crossword #14 Set by Wingding Quick quiz #19 Puzzle set by Angus Walker
#20 Caesar cipher
How might Caesar get you from 3 to 47?
A bit of general knowledge might help you
here, or some numerology, because there
are two neat solutions to this puzzle.Answer next week#19 The vicar’s age
Solution
The vicar was 50 on that day (it was her
birthday).
The family’s three ages must be factors of
2450 (2450 = 1 x 2 x 5 x 5 x 7 x 7). Any
combination of these factors into 3 possible
ages gives a product of 2450 (e.g. 2, 25
and 49), but they may give different sums
when you add them (e.g. in this case
2+25+49=76).
For the bishop to be unable to figure out
the exact combination of ages, there must
be at least two options that you can add to
make his age. Listing potential possibilities,
you will find that 5, 10, 49, and 7, 7, 50
both add to 64, and this is the only pair
with the same sum. Therefore 64 must
be the bishop’s age.
The vicar now reveals she is older than
everyone in the family, and the bishop is
able to work out the family’s ages from this.
If she is 51 or older, he still wouldn’t be able
to tell which combination of ages the family
has. But if the vicar has just turned 50, then
one of the family age groups can now be
eliminated - meaning the only possible
family ages are 5, 10 and 49.1 Of land mammals,
African elephants have the
second-longest and humans
have the longest. What?2 Up, down, top, bottom,
strange... what is missing?3 Approximately how
many genes does the
human genome contain:
(a) 20,000, (b) 100,000
or (c) 20 million?4 What historic event linked
the University of California,
Los Angeles, and the
Stanford Research Institute
on 29 October 1969?5 The Wolf number keeps
track of which solar
phenomenon?Answers belowQuick
Crossword #39
AnswersACROSS 1 IQ test, 4 Impala,
8 Divided, 9 Chevron, 11 White
heat, 12 Polyp, 14 Boron,
15 Emoticon, 16 Endogamy,
18 Rebus, 21 Firestone,
24 Rickets, 25 Boolean,
26 El Niño, 27 HerniaDOWN 1 Irish, 2 Twitter,
3/20 Stephen Jay Gould,
5 Mohs, 6 Alveoli, 7 Anonymous,
10 Safety Pin, 13 Source Code,
14 Bentonite, 17 Oilskin,
19 Botulin, 22 Nyala, 23 StunQuick quiz #19
AnswersLifespan 1Charm – they are the six 2types of quark(a) 20,000. The low number 3came as a surprise. Before theHuman Genome Project, mostresearchers’ best guess wasaround 100,000The first message sent 4between two computerson ARPANET, the forerunnerof the internetSunspots 5 ACROSS
1 Students’ union has zero
intelligence (4)
3 Idealists of America
welcoming outstanding
Scotsman (8)
9 Close your eyes: it’s good
to hold on to rubbish (7)
10 Small bone kept in part
of Victorian villa (5)
11 Landscape acquiring shape
and gravity, creating an
atmosphere, perhaps? (12)
13 Panel to cause
bewilderment (6)15 First of strawberries with
their usual accompaniment!
[Excited sound] (6)
17 Computer scientist injecting
nitrogen with sharp object- a decisive moment (7,5)
20 Delayed initial observations
near French city (2,3)
21 Sharpness of detective
in a large town (7)
22 Strangles software
developer after accepting
deterioration (8)
23 Time to reverse discharge (4)
Answers and the next quick crossword next week.DOWN
1 Carbon structure made of
graphene but on a new
piece, turned over (8)
2 Cruel, sick, sore (5)
4 Band covered by hill
showing sign of
Parkinson’s disease (6)
5 Medical book’s
unconventional approach
includes massaging head
and originally encouraged
injecting amphetamine (12)
6 Five gripped by a rhythmic
movement go forward (7)
7 Sulphur key to mineral (4)8 Every English hit thrown
under vehicle in high
radiation zone (3,5,4)
12 May the rebuilt road
lead to quartz (8)
14 Mathematician adding
natural number, imaginary
number, irrational number
and set of real numbers (7)
16 At home, hearing
precipitation, take
a breath (6)
18 Expression of stupid person
giving up time for millions (5)
19 Antelope drops round to get
filtration device (4)
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