Evening star., 1932-07-24

matical magic runs the full gamut
of human occupations, for the en-
ticements Of these intriguing enigmas
spur millions daily to don their thinking caps
in order to wrestle with the Uranium crump
lers.
Scientist. sailor lawyer, logger, doctor. door
man. professor and ppef1tter-all on the
grounds of common brotherhood match wits
against the wizardy of the testing brain teasers.
There is nothing better adapted to eliminate
conceit from him who poses as a wise man
than several rounds of concerted thinking mus
tered for the solution of some of these stub
6orn mentality testers
Some seek to belittle the puzzle games and
figure riddles brain balderdash They refuse
to compete with the think-cap testers. How
ever the overwhelming majority of those who
read and seek fascinating diversion during
idle hours are ardent fans of mental magic
The popularity of the Uranium ticklers IS based
largely on their versatility. They range from
clever conundrums which schoolboyS can solve
to puzzlels which bewilder even the leading
masters of mental attainment. American ad-
vertiSing now is capitaliZing on the lure OF tins
puzzle age by staging such multiplicity of
prize contests as never previously tempted the
nut cracking" talents Of any country.
Government scientists and teachers have long
used puzzle games and mathematical riddles as
mediums of diversion and amusement. Many OF
them gain similar idle hour and spare time
pleasure from solving the Uranium challengers
as their amateur craftsmen associates "eap
from shopwcrk home mechanics and related
hobbies.
George H Wardlaw of the National Bureau
of Standards has gone SO far in his mathe-
matical magic quest as to devise IL original
puzzle tricks with matches. To most of us
boz of matches is nothing more than So tiny
sources of tinder in small contalner. Mr.
Wardow has Matched out a plethora of inter
esting and entertaining tricks from that daily
and unassuming occupant OF one OF your pock-
cts His ingenion: game of Chinese chess played
with match sticks is founded on the mathe-
matical Jaw of balanced componentS With
three unequal piles of matches on the board.
can always get into a position to win by the
simple expedient of separating each pile into
its components in terms of the powers of 2.
and then making these components balance.
That is to say, the piles can be separated into
groups of l, 2. 4, g. 16 and SO on.
The majority of the Vardlaw brain brushers
consist of puzzle outlines such as squares,
stars, triangles and other geometr,c figures
formed with matches. the test being to shift
certain of the matches in order to form other
figures. For example, make five squares OF Is
matches and then by shifting six matches form
four equal squares. Form an equal-sided tn
angle of nine matches and then shift five
matches and form five equal-sided triangles.
Make five-pointed star with 10 matches Take
away four matches and form a six-pointed star
Form a six pointed star with Ii matches ana
then by shifting six matches convert 1t into
a snow crystal Form three diamonds from
10 matches Make three matches appear as
four without breaking them. With six matches
make a bridge that will span a stream wider
that the length of one match.
mathematically- minded man has some
matches in a box. Asked how many matches
he had, he replied: If the number of matches
in this bcx were only half many as
should like to have. then there would be 10
more matches in it than twice as many as there
really are in it. And. again. if there were four
more matches in it than there really are, and
I should add four additional matches to the
number I should like to have, then the total
number of matches I should like to have would
be five times as many as the actual number Of
matches in the box when the four matches
are added to it. How many matches are in
the box?
shipwrecked crew contains 1S whites and
Malay Food becoming low, they draw lots to
find who is to be sacrificed. They stand In q
row and agree to let the skipper count out each
seventh man. Which man did the skipper begin
with 50 as to make sure that the Malay would
be the one to go? In solving this problem. let
20 matches represent the crew and the Malay.
| IERE is a simple test for the money changer
which Mr. Wardlaw asked your writer A
man stopped me the street the other day
and asked me if could change a bill 50 that
he could get a nickel for q telephone call
told him that I was unable to change 81
greenback so that he could obtain a Scent
piece but that could change IS bin SO that