Consider these two groups of 20 words each. (I) RAP, DAMAGE, RAW, JOINT, DRAG, CHILL, HAIRY, PAIN, BOMB, SQUARE, CAN, KNOCK, BREAD, WASTE, THREADS, PAD, RAG, RUG, ZIP, COOLER. (II) CREEPY, GREEN, DRAG, TURKEY, OUT, CLINK, JOHN, YAK, TRASH, ZERO, SCRUB, GEAR, DIGS, SQUEEZE, WEED, SHEET, MOP, SQUAT, DOUGH, MAX.
Considered? Good, here’s what you have to do. Each word in the second group pairs up with one particular word in the first group for reasons which if I told you, you’ll solve the whole lot in a flash. Instead, I’ll just pair up one pair and leave you to figure out why. BOMB-TURKEY. (No, it isn’t what you suss.) (There, that’s a hint.)
THROUGHPUT
(The pre-Neanderthal puzzle posed much previously was how many ziggurat-like structures could be made when a 4*4*4 inch cube was perfectly sliced so that when the pieces were separated they were all in the form of 1*1*1 inch cubes.)
We get 64 1*1*1 cubes by slicing the 4*4*4 cube. Presuming that the minimum requirement for a ziggurat like structure is a square base with a 1” cube as pinnacle we can construct ziggurats with 7*7, 6*6, 5*5, 4*4, 3*3 and 2*2 bases and 2, 3, 4 or 5 steps. Starting with 7*7 base, we can build 1 four step ziggurat, 2 three step ones and 1 two step one. A total of 4 ziggurats. In the same vein, we can construct . . . etc etc etc.
Thus, with the given 64 one inch cubes, we can build 27 different ziggurat like structures. -- Balagopalan Nair K, balagopalannair@gmail.com
(The second one was: “A man with body surface area of 1 square metre, has to cover 100 metres in the rain on foot. There are 50 raindrops falling per cubic metre per second. Should he walk or run to avoid getting too wet?”)
Yes he will get less wet if he decides to run. Although everyone knows this by instinct for centuries (including animals), here is the mathematical answer, if you really need it: Drops of water hitting the man after he covers 100 meter in S seconds = 1 sq meter*100 meters*50 drops/cu m/sec*S seconds, or 5000 S drops. Clearly the faster he runs the lesser is the value of S and the lesser drops touch him. -- Altaf Ahmed, ctrlaltaf@yahoo.in
A physicist called Prof Bocci who has studied this problem says, “Let’s say that in general, the best thing is to run, as fast as you can to avoid getting drenched -- not always, but in general. If you’re really thin, it’s more probable that there will be an optimal speed. Otherwise, it’s better to run fast. As for wind direction -- and again, in general -- you should run as fast as you can unless the wind is behind you, in which case the optimal speed will be exactly the speed of the wind.” So Run Baby Run as a Keralite might advise you. -- Ajit Athle, ajitathle@gmail.com
(And the third problem was: “Decapitate me and all becomes equal. Then truncate me and I become second. Cut me front and back and I become two less than I started.”)
The answer is SEVEN. If the first letter is removed it becomes EVEN (equal). If the first and the last letters are removed it becomes EVE (the second person on the earth). If you remove the first two letters and the last two letters it becomes V (that is five -- two less than seven). -- Dr P Gnanaseharan, gnanam.chithrabanu@gmail.com
My answer is SEVEN. Decapitating, it is EVEN, meaning equal; truncating, it is EVE, representing the second person with Adam being first; cutting both ends, it is V a Roman numeral representing 5, two less than SEVEN. -- Seshagiri Row Karry, srkarry@yahoo.com
(Among the first five who also got famous are: Kishore Rao, kishoremrao@hotmail.com; Dr Ramakrishna Easwaran, drrke12@gmail.com; Saishankar Swaminathan, saishankar482@gmail.com; Shashi Shekher Thakur, shashishekher@yahoo.co; Abhay Prakash, abhayprakash@hotmail.com)
BUT GOOGLE THIS NOW
1. Without using Mr Pythagoras what is the area of a square whose diagonal is length 5 units?
2. Dates in India are generally written as day/month/year but in the US it’s month/day/year, right? Now some dates don’t lead to confusion such as 22/3/2017 because it has to March but some do like 7/4/2017 which can be either seventh April or fourth July depending on what system you’re following. So what percentage of the dates in a year are ambiguous because of this confusion?
Mukul Sharma
Sharma is a scriptwriter and former editor of Science Today magazine.(mukul.mindsport@gmail.com)