For the first time I finally got lots and lots of mail from people who sent in the correct wrong answer. Or, to put it another way, from people who either misunderstood the question or didn’t really bother to parse its language properly. Let’s take another look at the problem: “Consider the following series: ER, EU, AT, ??, UE, AR, RU, EN. Now, pay attention to the question AFTER you’ve solved the problem. What are the two missing letters?”
Now read it carefully once again. Notice that it asks you to solve the problem of the missing letters AFTER you’ve solved the “??” problem. Yes it’s a sneaky one and some people even thought beyond A & R and solved it as L & T (see below where I’ve run two sample solutions). Anyway have another go.
THROUGHPUT
(The problem from decades before yesterday involved six somewhat self-referential statements and you were told that each of them could be true or false. Then you were told to -- obviously -- figure out the obvious.)
Statements #1, #2 and #5 are true and #3, #4 and #6 are false. (1).Since #1 is true and #3 is false, their sum is 4 and #4 is false; this statement is true. Etc etc etc. (6) The first part states that this statement was not included when this problem was first sent. If it were true, #5 would have been the last statement. And taken with the fact that #1 is true, it creates a conundrum. That is, if it has to be true it has to be false and if it has to be false it has to be true. Consequently, the second part of statement #6, the answer to the question: What statements are false?’ was same ‘then as it is now’ will be false. Therefore, this statement is false. -- Balagopalan Nair K, balagopalannair@gmail.com (Yes Ajit Athle, ajitathle@gmail.com you got it too. -- MS)
(The second one was: “Sometimes in the early evening it’s often common to find a small swarm of insects -- usually mosquitoes and gnats -- hovering over your head and over trees. Why does this happen?”)
There are two reasons: They swarm around your head as they want CO2 and also if you are sweating they are attracted by octenol (a chemical found in human sweat), so if you’re sweating a lot, by default, you become a “sweet” target for them. Female mosquitoes find carbon dioxide and other substances particularly attractive. -- Narasimha Murthy Uppu, u_n_murthy@yahoo.com
Whenever a female mosquito or gnat encounters such a swarm, it’s almost certain that it will be impregnated by the quickest and strongest male present in the swarm. Their uncanny persistence in doing so may be attributed to the fact that they have to propagate the species (and get in what giggles they can) in an extremely short time -- mosquitoes and gnats only live for a few weeks. Keep this in mind the next time you are tempted to spoil some little insect’s fun by waving your hand through the orgy. -- Shashi Shekher Thakur, shashishekher@yahoo.com
(The third problem was -- and still is -- . . . but see above)
Hi. The two missing letters are A and R (taken out of mARrs). The sequence is extracted from the names of the eight planets. The second letter from the beginning and the second-last letter comprise the pair. This is a good puzzle Mukul! (You’re telling me! See above – MS) -- B ‘Nary’ Narayanaswamy, mail2nary@gmail.com
The two question marks refer to the letters A and R of the planet MARS. The given series consists of the pairs of the second letter and the last but one letter of the names of the first eight planets of our Solar system. The missing letters in the series are L and T of the ninth planet PLUTO which are the last two letters in the series of pairs of letters. -- Narayana Murty Karri, k_n_murty@yahoo.com (Very nice try NMK but Pluto is a dwarf planet now like Ceres, Sedna or Eris -- MS)
BUT GOOGLE THIS NOW
1. The meaning of a common English word becomes its own plural when an A is added in front. What is the word?
2. There is a particular integer of unknown number of digits consisting only of 7s which is divisible by 199. Your problem is to find the last four digits of the quotient with the stipulation that you have to do it without working out the complete quotient.
Mukul Sharma
Sharma is a scriptwriter and former editor of Science Today magazine.(mukul.mindsport@gmail.com)