536 Puzzles and Curious Problems

(Elliott) #1
a larger square, as B. The third girl
made a still larger square, as C, but
had four blocks left over for the cor-
ners, as shown. Each girl used all her
blocks at each stage. What is the
smallest number of blocks that each
box could have contained?
The diagram must not be taken to
truly represent the proportion of the
various squares.

Miscellaneous Puzzles 71


  1. FIND THE TRIANGLE


The sides and height of a triangle are four consecutive whole numbers.
What is the area of the triangle?


  1. COW, GOAT, AND GOOSE


A farmer found that his cow and goat would eat all the grass in a certain
field in forty-five days, that the cow and the goose would eat it in sixty days,
but that it would take the goat and the goose ninety days to eat it down. Now,
if he had turned cow, goat, and goose into the field together, how long would
it have taken them to eat all the grass?
Sir Isaac Newton showed us how to solve a puzzle of this kind with the
grass growing all the time; but, for the sake of greater simplicity, we will as-
sume that the season and conditions were such that the grass was not growing.



  1. THE POSTAGE STAMPS PUZZLE


A youth who collects postage stamps was asked how many he had in his
album, and he replied:
"The number, if divided by 2, will give a remainder 1; divided by 3, a re-
mainder 2; divided by 4, a remainder 3; divided by 5, a remainder 4; divided
by 6, a remainder 5; divided by 7, a remainder 6; divided by 8, a remainder
7; divided by 9, a remainder 8; divided by 10, a remainder 9. But there are
fewer than 3,000."
Can you tell how many stamps there were in the album?

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