Omaha daily bee., 1921-09-01
Marin Makes II Clear
Great Inventor Explains His
Qusstionnaire's Misty Points.

Maxim Park, ~ J.. Aug, 4.-To the Edito
OF The Bee; ! have received through my eultnl
agency many cuttings IN which the accuracy o
my supposed answer TO one OF the question
propounded by me In my QUESTIONABLE as pub
lished IN your paper, has been severely and right
fully challenged
For the benefit OF your readers, please let MI
explain. You did not publish my entire ques
iionnare as printed In the New York Evenini
| Telegram, There were twenty-seyen question:
altogether and you printed only eleven, one o
which was rs follows;
| When an express train passes a bystander,
whistling the while, the pitch of the whistle is
abnormally high as the train approaches, nor
| NAL when opposite the bystander. and alb
normally low after the train has passed. Why
| Is this!
Ny answer TO this question as printed in the
| Evening Telegram was as follows:
| The motion OF the train adds 10 the pitch
while approaching and subs,racts from the
| pitch after the train has passed the bystander.
II will be seen that my answer Is in exact
agreement with the answers given by my critics
but the answer which you printed as applying to
this question was that which gave in reply 10
the following question::
Two persons standing on opposite sides OF
a pile OF burning brush. find II necessary, in
speaking TO each other to raise the voice un-
usually high, even though the noise OF the
burning brush be Insignificant. Why is this?
To which my answer was:
Because OF the rarehed state OF the inter-
vening heated air and gases.
and X was this answer that you gave as the
answer to the question about the train.
OF course, naturally the answers to my ques-
tions could hardly be expected to be inter-
changeable so that any answer would fit any
question For example. suppose that, instead OF
printing the answer which you did print, you had
printed my answer to the following question
which propounded in the Telegram:
What is the difference between temptation
and eternity?
One is vile of the devil and the other
is the devil of while.
This answer would hardly have served TO ex-
plain the difference in the pitch of the whistle Of
an advancing and retreatng locomotive.
In regard to the stone wall question, I am
glad to see how many have answered it so well.
very simple way of visualizing and proving
the truth OF my answer to this question is to
take a compass and stick one point of it in a
horizontal base line drawn across a piece Of
paper, then strike half-circle to represent a
hill; resting on the base line, then strike another
half.circle little bit larger, to represent stone
wall over the hill If this line represents stone
wall four feet high on the top of the hill, it will
be found that its vertical height will be much
greater on the sides OF the hill This may be
demonstrated by drawing a series of vertical
lines at right angles TO the base line to represent
pickets. extending from the bottom of the hill
to four feet above the top of the hill, and it will
be seen that the pickets on the slopes Of the
hill, between the two half-circes, will be much
longer than on top of the hill, and consequently of
stone wall OF the same cross-section be built
up the sides of the hill as upon the top Of the hill,
the wall upon the sides of the hill will be much
more than four feet in height The same method
will also demonstrate the truth of my answer
that it takes no more pickets to build picket
fence over hill than 1t does in tunnel through
a hill
Regarding the criticism OF my answer to the
arithmetical problem, let me say that it is law
OF mathematics that quantities connected by
signs of division and multiplication must be
treated Just as though enclosed by marks of
parenthesis or covered by vnculum and con-
sequently, the operations represented BY them
must be performed before performing the opera
tions indicated by the plus and minus signs.