Crooks, an inveterate gambler, at Goodwood recently said to a friend, "I'll bet you half the money in my pocket on the toss of a coin--heads I win, tails I lose." The coin was toss...
The following represents a piece of wood in my possession, 5 in. square. By markings on the surface it is divided into twenty-five square inches. I want to discover a way of cuttin...
All that we need for this puzzle is nine counters, numbered 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9. It will be seen that in the illustration A these are arranged so as to form a Greek cross...
If you hold the page horizontally and give it a quick rotary motion while looking at the centre of the spiral, it will appear to revolve. Perhaps a good many readers are acquainted...
I have often had occasion to remark on the practical utility of puzzles, arising out of an application to the ordinary affairs of life of the little tricks and "wrinkles" that we l...
"Mrs. Spooner called this morning," said the honest grocer to his assistant. "She wants twenty pounds of tea at 2s. 41/2d. per lb. Of course we have a good 2s. 6d. tea, a slightly...
I have a wooden cone, as shown in Fig. 1. How am I to cut out of it the greatest possible cylinder? It will be seen that I can cut out one that is long and slender, like Fig. 2, or...
In a certain article a printer had to set up the figures 5^4x2^3, which, of course, means that the fourth power of 5 (625) is to be multiplied by the cube of 2 (8), the product of...
Farmer Longmore had a curious aptitude for arithmetic, and was known in his district as the "mathematical farmer." The new vicar was not aware of this fact when, meeting his worthy...
If I write the sum of money, L987, 5s. 41/2d., and add up the digits, they sum to 36. No digit has thus been used a second time in the amount or addition. This is the largest amoun...
ALE FOE HOD BGN CAB HEN JOG KFM HAG GEM MOB BFH FAN KIN JEK DFL JAM HIM GCL LJH AID JIB FCJ NJD OAK FIG HCK MLN BED OIL MCD BLK ICE CON DGK The above is the solution of a puzzle I...
The diagram represents the engine-yard of a railway company under eccentric management. The engines are allowed to be stationary only at the nine points indicated, one of which is...
The illustration represents one of the most ancient of all mechanical puzzles. Its origin is unknown. Cardan, the mathematician, wrote about it in 1550, and Wallis in 1693; while i...
I have eight sticks, four of them being exactly half the length of the others. I lay every one of these on the table, so that they enclose three squares, all of the same size. How...
Take a circular slice of potato, place it on the table, and see into how large a number of pieces you can divide it with six cuts of a knife. Of course you must not readjust the pi...
A boy tied a clothes line from the top of each of two poles to the base of the other. He then proposed to his father the following question. As one pole was exactly seven feet abov...
Can you place two White rooks and a White knight on the board so that the Black king (who must be on one of the four squares in the middle of the board) shall be in check with no p...
A certain generous London manufacturer gives his workmen every year a week's holiday at the seaside at his own expense. One year fifteen of his men paid a visit to Herne Bay. On th...
Necessity is, indeed, the mother of invention. I was amused the other day in watching a boy who wanted to play see-saw and, in his failure to find another child to share the sport...
Both in ancient and in modern times the number nine has been considered to possess peculiarly mystic qualities. We know, for instance, that there were nine Muses, nine rivers of Ha...
Sir Hugh's young kinswoman and ward, Lady Isabel de Fitzarnulph, was known far and wide as "Isabel the Fair." Amongst her treasures was a casket, the top of which was perfectly squ...
In the illustration eighteen matches are shown arranged so that they enclose two spaces, one just twice as large as the other. Can you rearrange them (1) so as to enclose two four-...
Here is a little pastoral puzzle that the reader may, at first sight, be led into supposing is very profound, involving deep calculations. He may even say that it is quite impossib...
The White rooks cannot move outside the little square in which they are enclosed except on the final move, in giving checkmate. The puzzle is how to checkmate Black in the fewest p...
In this case we use only nine cards--the ace to nine of diamonds. The puzzle is to arrange them in the form of a cross, exactly in the way shown in the illustration, so that the pi...
The family represented in the illustration are amusing themselves with this little puzzle, which is not very difficult but quite interesting. They have, it will be seen, placed six...
The sailor depicted in the illustration stated that he had since his boyhood been engaged in trading with a small vessel among some twenty little islands in the Pacific. He supplie...
For some time we tried to make these little reptiles perform the feat allotted to them, and failed. The Professor, however, would not give away his solution, but said he would inst...
Joseph Bloggs: "I can't follow it, my dear boy. It makes me dizzy!" John Snoggs: "It's very simple. Listen again! You happen to be my father's brother-in-law, my brother's father-i...
Place twelve plates, as shown, on a round table, with a penny or orange in every plate. Start from any plate you like and, always going in one direction round the table, take up on...