STUDENTS OF GEOMETRY will find here an interesting elementary problem which can best be solved by experimental puzzle methods, although it will he found that there is a scientific rule for getting the correct answer which bears a close resemblance to the famous Forty-seventh proposition of Euclid. The joiner has a piece of board four feet long by two feet wide, with a corner clipped off. The puzzle is to divide the board into the fewest number of pieces, so that without any waste they will fit together and make a perfect square top for the table, which is shown in the picture. In this particular case the missing piece has been cut off at what the mathematicians would term an angle of fifteen degrees, but when you have discovered the answer to the puzzle, it is worthy of note that the rule which governs the same might be applied to any other angle to produce the same result.
This problem called for a solution in the fewest possible number of pieces; it will be seen that the best answer requires but two straight cuts and accomplishes the feat through the happy medium of turning one of the pieces over—a practical piece of carpentering which some of the followers of Euclid did not think of.
Whether the angle from D to B is more acute or less acute makes no difference. Draw the line from the center of the left side E to middle of the angle at C. Then draw the line at right angle, so as to hit the corner G, and the three pieces will form the square shown as Fig. 2.
2. A CHARADE.
If from your shelf you take a book,
You’ll find me there if you but look;
And if you put me back again,
That I am there is also plain,
Decapitate, ’twill then appear
Without mistake that I am here;
Behead again - you’ll want no more,
Because I always come before.
Cipher Ans. 20, 8, 5, 18, 5.
THERE
3. A REBUS.
With pen in hand, it may be said
My first you often need;
Then add to that a horse’s head,
And what will urge his speed!
Nine letters thus complete my theme,
Which now you bring to view;
And, though it very strange may seem,
I but consist of two!
Cipher Ans. 4, 9, 16, 8, 20, 8, 15, 14, 7
DIPHTHONG
4.
Why is a horse one of the most worried of animals? His thoughts are always on the rack.
What is the difference between a church organist and the influenza? One knows the stops and the other stops the nose.
[Page 152]