Miscellaneous Puzzles 79- THE EGG CABINET
A correspondent (T. S.) informs us that a man has a cabinet for holding
birds' eggs. There are twelve drawers, and all-except the first drawer, which
only holds the catalog-are divided into cells by intersecting wooden strips,
each running the entire width or length of a drawer. The number of cells in
any drawer is greater than that of the drawer above. The bottom drawer,
No. 12, has twelve times as many cells as strips, No. 11 has eleven times as
many cells as strips, and so on.
Can you show how the drawers were divided-how many cells and strips
in each drawer? Give the smallest possible number in each case.
253. THE IRON CHAIN
Two pieces of iron chain were picked up on the battlefield. What purpose
they had originally served is not certain, and does not immediately concern
us. They were formed of circular links (all of the same size) out of metal half
an inch thick. One piece of chain was exactly 3 ft. long, and the other 22 in.
in length. Assuming that one piece contained six links more than the other.
how many links were there in each piece of chain?
- LOCATING THE COINS
"Do you know this?" said Dora to her brother. "Just put a dime in one of
your pockets and a nickel in the pocket on the opposite side. Now the dime
represents 1O¢ and the nickel, 5¢. I want you to triple the value of the coin in
your right pocket, and double the value of the coin in your left pocket. Add
those two products together and tell me whether the result is odd or even."
He said the result was even, and she immediately told him that the dime
was in the right pocket and the nickel in the left one. Every time he tried it
she told him correctly how the coins were located. How did she do it?
- THE THREE SUGAR BASINS
The three basins on the following page each contain the same number of
lumps of sugar, and the cups are empty. If we transfer to each cup one-