The Arkansaw traveler., 1888-01-07
BUDGET OF PARADOXES
Temple Bar

There exists, floating about the world in a verbal form, and occasion ally even appearing in print, a certain class of propositions or queries, of which the object is to puzzle the wits of the unwary listener, or to beguile him into giving an absurd reply. Many of these are very old, and some are excellent. Instances will readily occur. Who, for example. has not, at some period of his existence been asked the following question: "If a goose weighs ten pounds and half it's own weight, what is the weight of the goose?" And who has not been tempted to reply on the instant, fifteen pounds?-t the correct answer being, of course, twenty pounds. Indeed, it is astonishing what very simple query will sometimes catch a wise man nap ping. Even the following have been known to succeed:
 "How many days would it take to cut up piece of cloth fifty yards long, one yard being cut of every dayP"
 Or again:
 "A snail climbing up post twenty feet high, ascends five feet every day, and slips down four feet every night. How long will the snail take to 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 it's former size; yet the window was still only one yard high and one yard wide. How was this done?"
 This is a catch question in geome- try, as the preceding were catch ques- tions in arithmetic-the window be- ing diamond shaped at first, and after wards made square. As to the two former, perhaps it is scarcely necessary seriously to point out that the answer to the first is not fifty days, but forty nine; and to the second, not twenty days, but sixteen-since the snail who gains one foot each day for fifteen days climbs on the sixteenth day to the top of the pole, and there remains.
 Such examples are plentiful, and occasionally both curious and anus ing. But the purpose of the follow ing paper is to illustrate class of problems of rather a different kind. There are certain problems which are in no way catch questions (any prob lem involving a mere verbal quibble is, of course, out of court by it's own innate vileness), and which, though at first sight extremely simple, often re- quire considerable ingenuity to arrive at correct result. Take for example the following:
 "A man walks round pole, on the top of which is a monkey. As the man moves, the 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 occur at first sight to most persons is that the man has not gone round the monkey, since he has never been behind it. The correct answer, however, as decided by KnoUledge, in the pages of which this momentous question has been ar gued, is that the man has gone round the monkey in going round the pole.
 The following has not, so far as the writer is aware, hitherto appeared in print: "A train standing on an incline is just kept stationary by an engine which is not sufficiently powerful to draw it up the incline. A second en- zine, 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. Suppose the carriages to be linked together by loose chains, 90 that when the engine in front is act ing the chains are stretched and the buffers between the carriages are sepa- rated, then, when the train is moving under the action of two engines, the buffers must be either together or apart. Which are they? If they are apart, the engine behind the train is evidently doing no work. If they are together, then the engine in front is doing none. But neither engine alone can move the train. Why, then, does the train move?"
 The following was once asked at . university wine party by now we'll known senior wrangler: Suppose three snakes, each of which is swai- lowing another by the tail, So that the three form circle-then, as the swal- lowing process continues, the circle evidently grows smaller and smaller. Now, if they thus continue to swal- low each other, what will eventually become of the snakes?"