Waterbury evening Democrat. [volume] (Waterbury, Conn.) 1887-1895, 1891-05-27
TO CATCH THE UNWARY.
Many Old and New Paradoxes
That Are Interesting.
Tests for the wits OF Your Friends-Bright
Problems That Are Puzzling Yet
Easy to Solve-An Old Rule
with no Exception.

After the cigars had been lighted at a
small dinner party one evening not
long ago, the subject of paradoxes was
introduced. It was a matter Of consid-
cradle comment to those present what
a large number Of propositions, or
queries, there are floating about the
world in one form or another, which
are intended to puzzle the wits Of the
unwary. Some of them are extremely
ancient, having been handed down
from the works of the Greek philosoph-
ers, and some are of recent origin. All
of them form excellent mental exercise,
as they sharpen the wits, besides being
q recreation to the mind. No claim to
originality is made to the examples
given here, most of which were brought
out at the dinner mentioned, but un-
doubtedly some readers will find num-
Der of questions which they have never
before heard Who has not at some
period of his existence puzzled his brain
over this query:
If q goose weighs ten pounds and
half its own weight, what Is the weight
Of the goose?
Many persons have undoubtedly been
tempted to answer fifteen pounds, when
the correct answer, of course, is twenty
pounds, as they discover after giving
the problem a little thought. An ex-
ceedingly wise man has sometimes been
caught by very simple question Of
this sort. The following for example:
How many days would 1t take to cut
up piece Of cloth fifty yards long, one
yard being cut off every day?
Or this:
A snail climbing up a post twenty feet
high ascends five feet every day and
slips down four feet every night. How
long will it take the snail to reach the
top of the post?
These are simple questions In
arithmetic, and yet, how many per-
sons would answer fifty days, instead
of forty-nine to the first one, and
twenty instead of sixteen to the last
one. It is perhaps scarcely necessary
to point out that the snail would gain
one foot day for fifteen days, and on
the sixteenth day reach the top of
the pole, and there, of course, remain.
Here is one of different sort, but
none the less puzzling;
A man walks round a 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. When the man
has gone round the pole, has he or has
he not, gone round the monkey?
As either answer to this question may
be upheld with strong and logical
arguments, the reader is left to decide
the question for himself.
Which, at any given moment, is NOV
ing forward faster, the top OF a coach
wheel, or the bottom?
The answer to this question seems
simple enough, but probably nine per
sons out of ten, asked at random, would
give the wrong reply. 1t would appear
at first sight that the top and bottom
must be moving at the same rate; tina
Is, the speed of the carriage. But by
little thought 1t will be discovered tina
the bottom of the wheel is, in fact, b,
the direction of its motion around It
axis, moving backward, in an opposit.
direction to that which the carriage /
advancing, and is consequently station
airy in space, while the point on to-
of the wheel is moving forward witt
the doubled velocity Of its own motor
around the axis and the speed at whicl
the carriage moves.
Many persons viii recall the famou
paradox of Zeno, by which he sough
to prove that all motion is impossible
"a body" he argued, Unjust NOV
either in q place where It Is or in
place where 1t Is not NoY, body 1
the place where it is is stationary an
cannot be in motion, nor, obviously
can it be in motion in the place wher
it is not. Therefore 1t cannot move Q
all" =
Bodies do move, however, and that
a sufficient answer to the ingeniou
philosopher. Another paradox whic
has been inherited from the Greeks
that of Achilles and the tortoise
familiar. -. .s~..
Achilles (the swift-footed) allows th
tbrtoise a hundred yards start, an
. runs ten yards while the tortoise run
one. Now. when Achilles has run
hundred yards the tortoise has ru
vi ten yards, and is therefore sti
that distance ahead. When Achi
les has run these ten yard
. the tortoise has run one yard. Whe
Achilles has run the one yard, the to
! toise has run one-tenth Of a yard. An
when Achilles has run the one-tenth (
d yard the tortoise has run onc-hul
dredth. II Is only necessary to col
tinue the same process of reasoning
prove that Achilles can never overtal