52 | New Scientist | 8 June 2019
The back pages Puzzles
Cryptic crossword #08 Set by Wingding Quick quiz #06 Puzzle set by Zoe Mensch
#06 Darts challenge
Everyone knows that on a regular
dartboard you can score 180 with three
darts, by getting three treble twenties.
However, there are scores below 180
that you can’t get with three darts.
What is the lowest score you can’t
get with three darts? And for that matter,
what is the lowest score that you can’t
get with two darts? And with one dart?
(You can of course score zero with a
dart, simply by missing the board.)
Answer next week#05 Murphy’s law of socks
Solution
The first sock that I lose is guaranteed
to create an odd sock. There are now five
socks left, an odd sock plus two pairs.
The chance that the next lost sock
will create a new odd sock is therefore
4/5, or 80 per cent.
Now we have four socks left, two odd
socks and one pair, so the chance that the
third lost sock will break up the final pair
is 2/4, which is also 1/2 or 50 per cent.
The chance of having three odd
socks after three washes is therefore
4/5 x 1/2 = 2/5 (or 40 per cent).
That means there is only a 60 per cent
chance that I won’t end up with three
odd socks after three washes, i.e. that
I still have one pair intact.
This helps to explain the commonly
shared experience that washing machines
seem to generate odd socks.1 What celestial object
did US astronomer Clyde
Tombaugh discover in
1930?2 Low-density lipoprotein,
or LDL, is more commonly
known as what when
found to excess in the
bloodstream?3 In Einstein’s special
relativity, what mathematical
transformation determines
how times dilate and
lengths contract when
objects are moving?4 The smallest pair of
amicable numbers is
220 and 284. What
makes them amicable?5 The beaches around
Tortuguero on Costa Rica’s
Caribbean coast are known
for their large numbers of
which nesting animal?Answers belowQuick
Crossword #32
AnswersAcross 1 Blastula, 5 Bleach,
9 Oakridge, 10 Sweden,
12 Salt, 13 Oceanology,
14 Diesel, 16 Hydrate,
19 Viscous, 21 Pirate,
23 Greenfield, 25 Gout,
27 Deixis, 28 Freeware,
29 Ocelli, 30 AsbestosDown 1 Biopsy, 2 Alkaloids,
3 Twin, 4 Logical,
6 Low Loader, 7 Audio,
8 Honeydew, 11 Mach,
15 Spoonbill, 17 Astronaut,
18 Avogadro, 20 Skin,
21 Polaris, 22 Stress,
24 Elite, 26 CereQuick quiz #06
AnswersPluto 1“Bad” cholesterol (high-density 2HDL is “good”)ation Lorentz transform 3of the divisors of the The sum 4ber (excluding itself) first numadds up to the secondSea turtles 5Across
1 Bit of chicken and last
of jam in bread (4)
3/26 Chemist concocting
a floral drink in NS (8,8)
9 Unusual piece of
grilled cheese (7)
10 See 24
11 Reportedly escapes
vegetables (5)
12 Tidy tree (6)
14 Detectives taken in
by fanatic, one with
nothing on (6)16 The problem with time:
skin or bone, say (6)
19 Lawyer chasing sheep’s
cosmological constant (6)
21 Steals cage and cave,
perhaps (5)
24/10 Physicist’s gold bar
flipped in yoghurt drink (5,5)
25 Build-up of mucus in Middle
Eastern country, we hear (7)
26 See 3 across
27 Sense force, something
fishy (4)Answers and the next quick crossword next week.Down
1/13 Travelling healer
chronicles astronomer (8,8)
2/22 Chemist put two
drops of iodine in horse
medicine (5,5)
4 Deploy malicious bot first,
being difficult (6)
5 Bear and mosquito first
preserved in resin (5)
6 Bees, perhaps in religious
groups (7)
7 Document beginning
to tear and fall (4)
8 Namib is especially
welcoming to birds (6)13 See 1 down
15 Bloodsucker regularly
employed by DARPA,
a cruel man (7)
17 Present at birth in pub,
originally at The Eagle (6)
18 Ignoring navy and
politician, train chimp
in martial art (3,3)
20 Bird, sea or hole
reflecting little light (5)
22 See 2 down
23 Almost split musical
symbol (4)Get in touch
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