The Arizona sentinel., 1888-02-18
SOME PAROD0X ES.
Propositions or Queries of a Puz-
 zling Character.

world in 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 tho following question: ''If goose weighs ten pounds and half its own weight, what is the weight of the gooseP" And who has not been tempted to reply on the instant, fifteen pounds?-the correct answer being. of course, twenty pounds. h. deed, it IS astonishing what a very simple query will sometimes catch a wise man mapping. Even the follow inc have been known 10 succeed:
 ''How many days would it take to cut up piece of cloth fifty yards long, one yard being cut off every day?"
 Or again:
 "A snail climbing up a post twenty feet high. ascends five feet every day and slips down four feet every night. How long will the snail take to reach *he 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 window was still only one yard high and one yard wide. How was this done?"
 This is a catch question in geometry, as the preceding were catch questions in arithme tic-the window being dia- mond-shaped at first and afterw ards made square. As to the two former, perhaps it is scarcely necessary seri- ously 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-sinee 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 oc- casionally both curious and amusing But the purpose of the following paper is to illustrate class of problems of rather different kind. There are certain problems which are in no way catch questions (any problem involv- ing a mere verbal quibble is of course out of court by its own innate vile ness), and which, though at first sight extremely simple, often require con- siderable ingenuity to arrive at cor rect result. Take for example the fol- lowing:
 "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 cor rect answer, however, as decided by KnoWLedge, in the pages of which this mOmentOus question has been argued, 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 in cline is , ust kept stationary by an en- zine which is not sufficiently powerful to draw it up the incline A second engine, of the same power as the first. is then brought up to assist by push ing 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, so that when the engine Tn front is acting the chains are stretched and the buff ferS 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 hey! 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 a university wine-party by now we'll known senior wrangler: Suppose three snakes, each of which is swal-