San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1888-01-12
QUERIES FOR THE WISE.

Curious Propositions Which Puzzle
the Wits of Unwary Listeners.
From the Temple Bar
There exists, floating about the world
In verbal form, and occasionally even
appearing in print, certain class OF
propositions or queries, of which the
| object is to puzzle the wits Of the un.
wary listener, or to beguile him into
giving an absurd reply. Many Of these
are very old, and come are ex-
ccllent. Instances will readily
occur. Who. for example, has not, at
some period OF his existence, been
asked the following question: eff n
goose weighs 10 pounds and half Its own
weight, what Ia the weight OF the
gOOse?" And who has rot been tempted
to reply on the instant, Is pounds? the
correct answer being, OF course, 20
pounds. Indeed, IL Is astonishing what
very simple query will sometimes catch
a wise man mapping. Even the follow
ing have been known to succeed:
How many days would II take TO cut
up piece OF cloth 30 yards long, yard
being cut of every day."
Or again:
"A snail climbing upa post 20 feet
high, ascends feet every day and slips
down feet every night. How long will
the snail take 10 reach the top OF the
post?"
Or again:
"A wise man having window one
yard high and one yard wide, and re-
Quiring more light, enlarged his win
dow to twice its former size; yet the
Loo tnh nd
one yard wine. How was this dOne?"
This is catch question in geometry.
as the preceding were catch questions In
arithmetic the window being diamond
shaped at frat, and attefwsrd made
square. As 10 the two former, perhaps
IL Is scarcely necessary seriously to point
out that the answer to the first Ia not
fifty days, but fOrty-nine; and TO the
second, not twenty days, but siXteen-
since the snail. which gains one foot
each day for fifteen days, climbs out the
sixteenth day TO the top OF the pole, and
there remains.
Such.exsmples are plentiful and coca
sionally both curious and amusing.
But the purpose of the following paper
is to illustrate class OF problems OF
rather different kind. There are GER
tain problems which are In no way
catch questions (any problem involving
a mere legal quib0le is. of course, out Of
court by lite own innate vileness). and
which. often require considerable inge-
nuity to arrive at q correct result. Take,
Tor example, the following:
a man walks ronnd n pole, on the
top of which is monkey turns round on
the top of the pole so as still to keep
face TO face with the man. Query:
When the man has gone round the pole
has he, or has he not, gone round the
monkey" The answer which will oc-
cur at first sight to most persons is that
the man has not gone round the monkey,
since he has never been behind Ii. The
correct answer, however, as decided by
knowledge, in the pages OF which this
momentOus question has been regarded,
is that the man has gone round the
monkey in going round the pole.
The following has not, as far as the
writer is aware. hitherto appeared in
print: train standing on an incline is
just kept stationary by an engine which
is not sufficiently powerful enough TO
draw it up the incline. A second en-
CINE, OF the same power as the first, is
then brought up to assist by pushing the
train from behind, and the two engines
together take the train up the incline.
gether by loose chains, so that when the
engine In front is acting the chains are
stretched and the buffers between the
carriages are separated, then, when the
train is moving under the action of two
engines, the buffers must be either to-
geIher or apart. Which are they? II
they are apart, the engine behind the
train Ia evidently doing no work. IL
they are together. then the engine In
front Is doing none. But neither en-
CINE alone can move the train. Why,
then, does the train move?
The following was once asked at uni
versity wine party by a now well-known
SCI Tor wrangler: suppose three snakes,
each Of which j, swallowing the other
by the tail, so that the three form cir
CIe-then, rs the swallowing process
continues, the circle evidently grows
continue to swallow each other, what
will eventually become OF the snakes"
or course, 1t is clear that the swallow
Ing process must stop somewhere. or
that the snakes will vanish down each
others throats. At what point, then,
will the swallowing cease? II the read
er finds himself ready on the spot with
clear and precise answer to this ques-
tiOn. he will have proved himself OF a
reader wit thar the guests of the above
mentioned wiuP party. A little COnsid-
Grafton, however, will probably be sutfi-
cient TO clear up the mystery, and like
the preceding enigma OF the railway,
the problem may safely be left to the
examination IF tho InupDinns