page 5

Puzzle

An enterprising student was recounting to a friend (who was less enterprising) how he had been offered a rather curious job working for a demolition firm along Molesworth Street.

"What is so curious about it?" asked his friend.

"Well." replied the enterprising student. "I can work for one day if I like, and be paid a given amount. Or I can work for two days, receiving a lower rate of pay for that day. Or I can work for any number of days I like, actually, but each day the rate of pay decreases by a fixed amount. And the amount by which the pay decreases is a whole number of sixpences.

"I see," said his friend. "In other words, if the basic rate of pay were 30/- per day, you could work one day and gel 30/-. or two days at. say 29/- per day. and so on."

"Yes. that is right," agreed his enterprising friend, "although the basic rate of pay is not 30/- per day, but two and a half guineas."

"For how long, then, do you propose to work?" inquired his friend.

"I want to earn as much as I possibly can," replied the enterprising student, "so I'm going to work for eight days."

His friend, poor ignorant fellow would have thought that more would have been earned had the enterprising student worked for nine days, and said so. However he was informed that he was quite wrong. What deduction is made from the basic rate of pay for each additional day worked?

Answer will appear in next issue.

The answer to the last puzzle, the one about the bus service, is as follows. The interval between two consecutive green buses (inner route) is 12 minutes. Therefore (to make the odds two to one), red (outer route) is eight minutes after green, and green four minutes after red. Since a red bus (outer route) goes past at 1.47, a green bus passes at 1.51, the other times being 3, 15, 27. and 39 minutes after the hour.