I often remember the number of times that I’ve not been allowed into fancy hotels, five-star restaurants and Air Force messes because I’ve not been wearing “proper” clothes. Okay, I don’t possess a suit or—horrors—even a tux so I don’t even TRY to crash black-tie affairs, but not wearing a shirt has also featured majorly among my various butt-outs. So has wearing T-shirts without a collar. Or T-shirts with a collar but not tucked in. Or sneakers without socks. Or vice versa. (And all this mind you while my dulcet-eyed mate wearing drop-dead duds that wouldn’t raise an eyelash at a Stones concert is regaled in amidst muted applause by the management.)
The last time it happened was in a grim little club in New Delhi where, as I was being shuffled gatewards by a posse of serious Siberian huskies, a man dressed exactly like a penguin informed my protests that in that case the next thing you know even street-sweepers would be coming in to hit the high fives and boogieing themselves silly into the dawn. Imagine. Obviously we can’t allow that kind of a thing to happen without the very fabric or rubric or whatever the heck of our society tattering to confetti, can we?
But I stray. Therefore, to get back:
A certain person lived for many years to a ripe old age. But he celebrated his birthdays only a few times initially and then not at all since they simply “stopped coming” (as he put it). He was right. What is the explanation?
THROUGHPUT
(The problem was: “Everyone knows a compass doesn’t point towards the north geographical pole. However, it doesn’t point towards the north magnetic pole either. So where does it point?”)
A compass doesn’t always point exactly north because the Earth’s magnetic North Pole is not the same as the geographic North Pole. The magnetic North Pole lies about 1,000 miles south of true north, in Canada. Also the magnetic North Pole isn’t even a stationary point. Over the last century, it has shifted more than 1,000 kilometres toward Siberia. This difference between true north and the north heading on a compass is an angle called declination which varies from place to place because the Earth’s magnetic field is not uniform. —Ajit Athle, ajitathle@gmail.com
The north pole of the compass gets attracted to the magnetic south pole of the Earth and points to it. Since the magnetic south pole of the Earth is near the geographic North Pole and vice versa, we roughly assume the direction pointed by the compass to be north. —Abhishek Shanthkumar, abhishek.shanthkumar@gmail.com
(The second problem was: “A, B and C are three towns, each pair being connected by a network of roads. There are 82 different routes from A to B (including those that go through C) and 62 different routes from B to C (including those that go through A). What is the smallest number of routes from A to C (including those that go through B)?
Let x be the number of roads between town A and town B, y the number of roads between town B and town C and z those between towns A and C. So there are x + yz routes between towns A and B, y + zx routes between towns B And C and z + xy routes between A and C. From the given data the possible values of z are 21, 11, 6, 5, 3 and 2 of which z = 11 yields 46 routes Z = 3 yields 302 routes and z = 2 yields 478 routes..So the solution for the smallest number of routes from A to C is 46. —Balagopalan Nair, balagopalannair@gmail.com
(The last problem was: “. Icicles are usually formed by the snow melting on sloping roofs of cottages. But if it’s cold enough for water to freeze (to form icicles), why does the snow melt in the first place?”)
Icicles usually form on days when the outdoor air temperature is sub-freezing but the sunshine melts some snow on rooftops .As it drops off the roof, a water droplet freezes when it loses its heat to the cold air outside. —Srinivasa Rao G, sagh49@yahoo.com
BUT GOOGLE THIS NOW
1. Five suspects, A, B, C, D and E, are rounded up in a connection with a robbery. Their statements are as follows: A: “C and D are lying.” B: “A and E are lying.” C: “B and D are lying.” D: “C and E are lying.” E: “A and B are lying.” Who is the only suspect we know for certain is lying?
2. If we are suddenly exposed to very cold water why do we start breathing though the mouth?
Sharma is a scriptwriter and former editor of Science Today magazine.
(mukul.mindsport@gmail.com)
