THE SILVER FLEECE
(Continued on Page
I would caution you that the stunt can't be pulled too many. times, for the ears of the un- initiated are likely to catch on to the different sounds, and then good-by profits and enter possible mayhem.
One device to trap the unwary is so simple as to seem positively childish, and so obvious that one would think nobody could possi-- bly fail to see it; and yet people consistently fall for it and are mightily mystified by it. Take a handful of coins from your poc- ket and keep your fist closed on it (you might jingle it a bit to show your opponent that you are holding more than one coin) and then tell the victim that he may take any number he likes from his pocket, odd or even as · he chooses, and that you will bet that the total will be different from the number he chose--that is, if he selected an odd number, the total will be even, and vice- versa. His bet, of course, is that his number and the total will be the same as far as oddness evenness go.
or
On the face of it, it looks like a good fifty fifty bet; but-per- haps I should adopt the attitude I selected for the last piece of skullduggery outlined; it's a. fraud, pure and simple, and is mentioned here as a warning only. All you have to do is be sure that the number of coins
you take from your pocket is an odd num¬ ber; your opponent will never be right.. It's quite clear, surely an odd number plus an odd number produces an even number; an odd number plus an even number pro- duces an odd number. Therefore no matter whether the unfortun- ate easy mark selects an odd or an even number of coins the total is invariably the reverse.
Of course you can always get somebody to bet that you can't give him thirty cents in two coins
If
quarter. one of which isn't a you know it, don't sneer, there are one hundred million people in this broad and fairly fair land, and it is reasonable that even the most
wheeze has been
believe
moss-grown
ed by two or three of them. And then, maybe you don't know it. Come on, then; I'll give you thirty cents. in two coins, one of which isn't a quarter. Sold? The money's up? Good; here you are; a quar- ter and a nickel. One of them isn't a quarter. That's what I said; that's what I promised to, do. I have given you thirty cents in two coins, and one of them isn't a quarter. One of them, · of course, is a quarter, but that wasn't the idea. Pay me.
As a finisher, here is a little stunt which sounds a lot simpler than it is; at least in numerous personal trials I have found it a sticker for some really very fine intellects. Take six coins--they needn't be alike, though it makes the general layout reater if all six are the same and lay them out in a row, three with heads up and the other three with tails on top, like this:
The puzzle is to get them ar- ranged with heads and tails al- ternating, like this:
-in three moves each move consisting of turning over a pair of adjacent coins. That is, at each move you turn over. two coins, and the coins turned, must be next to each other. Of course, if you could turn over coins that were not adjacent the puzzle would be solved in one move. by turning over the second and fifth `coin; but adjacency is of the es- sence, as the barristers say.
THE CHINA MAIL THURSDAY SUPPLEMENT, APRIL 8. 1937
POP
By J. MILLAR WATT
The Irresistible Songbirds
ONES
HIGH
THE
OH, YOU TAKE
AND
I'LL
TAKE
THE
LOW
ONES
Solution To Problems
Five coins can be moved from the formation given into such a position that each would exactly touch a sixth, if it were there, by the following four moves (See diagram below):
Move coin No. 1 to dotted posi- tion 1 coin No. 2 to dotted posi- tion 2; alide coin No. 4 up to the place originally occupied by coin No. 2, and move coin No. 1 back to its original place.
In the case of the five nickels and five pennies, to get them to- gether move the following pairs, considering that the two blank..
spaces are numbered 11 and 12, and that the numbers refer to the spaces and not to the coins. If the directions, for instance, call for No. 2 to be moved, to space No. 6. say, then that coin. becomes No. 6. Move 2 and 3, 7 and 8, 4 and 5, 10 and 11, and 1 and 2: As there are always only two blank spaces it need not be speci- fied where these moves are made to.
The
three-nickels-and-three- pennies puzzle is solved like this: move a nickel, then two pennies, then three nickels, then three pennies, then three nickels, then two pennies, then one nickel. The nice thing is that these moves are so easy to remember: 1, 2, 3, 3, 3, 2, 1, and alternating nickels and pennles. In Every short time you learn to make the change so quickly that a watch- er can't follow your movés.
To get the coins alternating heads and tails in three moves, turn over pairs 3-4, 4-5, and
60 1934, by Dell Syndicatel
A-DA
DA DA &
DA-
- DA
DA
ول