52 | New Scientist | 27 July 2019
The back pages Puzzles
Cryptic crossword #11 Set by Sparticle Quick quiz #13 Puzzle set by David Bedford
#14 The H coins problem
Seven coins have been placed in the “H”
shape above. Altogether there are five
lines of three, including the diagonals.
Your challenge is to place two more
coins so that you can make 10 straight
lines of three. No stacking of coins or
other sneaky trick is required.
If you find a way to do this, give yourself
a silver medal. If you find a second way to
do it that isn’t a mirror image of the first,
award yourself a gold.Answer next week#13 Snail party
Solution
As the four snails move towards each other
they point at all times at the snail they are
moving towards. They thus keep to the
corners of a rotating, ever decreasing square.As A, for example, changes direction, so do B,
C and D, all by the same amount, so their
paths are constantly at right angles. This
means that A, for example, always comes
towards B at the same constant speed it did
at the start, continuing until they meet.This is exactly the same situation as if B were
stationary and A moved directly towards it.
Thus the time taken is the initial distance,
2 metres, divided by the speed, 2 metres per
hour, which equals 1 hour.1 What speed is required
to go hypersonic?2 Plants of the genus
Nepenthes are most
notorious for what?3 Dotted with more than
400 volcanoes, what is the
most tectonically active body
in the solar system?4 The abandoned whaling
station Grytviken is the only
settlement on which UK
island territory in the South
Atlantic, also home to the
grave of polar explorer
Ernest Shackleton?5 Where are the Islets
of Langerhans?Answers belowQuick
Crossword #36
AnswersACROSS 1/8 Nettie Stevens,
4 Stimulus, 9 Octave,
10 Airspace, 12 Anaerobe,
13 Curare, 16 Asbestosis,
19 Conduction, 20 Glue,
23/15 Don’t Be Evil, 25 Fuselage,
27 Vertebra, 28 Cloaca,
29 Roadkill, 30 Expert
DOWN 1 Neonate, 2 Titration,
3 Invert, 5 Trig, 6 Mosquito,
7 Llama, 11 Obesity,
14 Zero Sum, 17 Self Aware,
18 Outbreak, 19 Cadaver,
21 Elegant, 22 Reflex,
24 Noria, 6 AralQuick quiz #13
Answerses the speed of Mach 5, five tim 1soundEating insects. They are 2carnivorous tropical pitcherplantsoon Io Jupiter’s m 3South Georgia 4The pancreas. They contain 5its insulin-producing cells anded for their discoverer, are namist an anatomthe GermPaul LangerhansAcross
1 Aerial insect gives woman
a turn (7)
5 Problem with Schrödinger’s
guinea pig loose in
Switzerland (5)
8 Poster I connect with
European farewell (5)
9 Distracted animal tracks
earliest Facebook post (3,4)
10 Order an X-ray. It’s faulty?
Strange (13)
11 3 downs are beginning
to follow life in French
capital (6)
12 One can wrap one’s headaround graduate’s
party trick (6)
15 Opportunities for mass
movement to build on
cancer study (7,6)
18 Howler monkey with a
long exclamation of pain
up front (3,4)
19 A soupçon of digitalis
lethargises a pancreatic
region (5)
20 Chuck, say, investment
in acoustic mimicry (5)
21 Read, and if you highlight
a section, smarten up (7)Answers and the next quick crossword next week.Down
1 Retail giant chasing Google’s
tail loses on “wow!” (5)
2 List the wrong flower
of Scotland (7)
3 It can process, learn,
know. True? (6,7)
4 Guarantee mass drops very
loudly in the atmosphere (6)
5 Distribution of electrons
touring foci – an unorthodox
arrangement (13)
6 Revolutionary Atari
headband (5)
7 Golden clay fired
and compressed by
hydrogen covering (7)11 Mindless drone returning
with great speed over you
and me (7)
13 Chief inspector gets sick
following graduate (they
spread disease) (7)
14 Once you replace Euclid’s
Elements II and III, either can
be dropped with a wink! (6)
16 Sources of u-shaped lines
near an ellipse parallel to
the radii? (5)
17 Spit food at cutting
remark (5)Get in touch
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