536 Puzzles and Curious Problems

(Elliott) #1

task of weighing the baby. Whenever
they attempted to put the baby alone
on the machine she always yelled and
rolled off, while the father was holding
off the dog, who always insisted on
being included in the operations. At
last the man with the baby and Fido
were on the machine together, and I
took this snapshot of them with my
camera."
He produced a photograph, from
which I have simply copied the dial,
as that is all we need.
"Then the man turned to his wife
and said, 'It seems to me, my dear,
that baby and I together weigh 162 lb.
more than the dog, while the dog
weighs 70 per cent less than the baby.


Weight Puzzles 31

We must try to work it out at home.'
I also amused myself by working it
out from those figures. What do you
suppose was the actual weight of that
dear infant?"


  1. FRESH FRUITS


Some fresh fruit was being weighed for some domestic purpose, when it was
found that the apples, pears, and plums exactly balanced one another, as shown
in the sketch. Can you say how many plums were equal in weight to one pear?
The relative sizes of the fruits in the drawing must not be taken to be correct

(they are purposely not so), but we must assume that every fruit is exactly
equal in weight to every other of its own kind.
It is clear that three apples and one pear are equal in weight to ten plums,
and that one apple and six plums weigh the same as a single pear, but how
many plums alone would balance that pear?

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