Chapter 4

Two to one, in case we hide,You will find us in our site;We are harmless side by side,Parted we prepare to bite.When united we divide,When divided we unite.

Solution

Equal volumes of alcohol and water, when mixed, occupy less space than when separate, to the extent indicated in this picture:

Bottles

If the sum of the volume of the two separate liquids is 100, the volume of the mixture will be only 94. It is thought that the molecules of the two liquids accommodate themselves to each other, so as to reduce the pores and diminish the volume of the mixture.

Cut off my head, I’m every inch a king,A warrior formed to deal a heavy blow;Halve what remains, my second is a thingWhich nothing but my third can e’er make go.My whole will vary as you take your line,This less than human, that way all divine.

Solution

One half of me in solid earth you find,The other half in ocean’s ample bed:When in my whole we see these parts combined,The earth remains, but all the sea is fled.

Solution

The simplest and cheapest of all microscopes can easily be made at home. The only materials needed are a thin slip of glass, on to which one or two short paper tubes, coated with black sealing wax, are cemented with the wax, a small stick, and a tumbler half full of water.

Glass microscope

Water is dropped gradually by aid of the stick into the cells, until lenses are formed of the desired convexity, and objects held below the glass will be more or less magnified.

Not ever changed unless unchanged,Nor hanged unless beheaded;Quick eyes may find in me arrangedAlmost an angel bedded.

Solution

For this curious experiment a glass bottle or decanter about half full of water and a sound stalk of straw are needed.

Straw in bottle

Bend the straw without breaking it, and put it, as is shown, into the bottle, which can then be lifted steadily and safely by the straw, if it is a sound one.

A Russian nobleman had three sons. Rab, the eldest, became a lawyer, his brother Mary was a soldier, and the youngest was sent to sea. What was his name?

Solution

The button in a clear glass bottle, as is shown below, hangs attached by a thread to the cork, which is securely sealed at the top.

Bottled button

How can you sever the thread so that the button falls to the bottom without uncorking or breaking the bottle?

Solution

Six before six beforeFive times a hundred;This must be brilliant, orSolvers have blundered.

Solution

Here is a pretty trick which requires an empty bottle, a lucifer match, and a small coin.

Coin on bottle

Break the wooden match almost in half, and place it and the coin in the position shown above. Now consider how you can cause the coin to drop into the bottle, if no one touches it, or the match, or the bottle.

Solution

Scorned by the meek and humble mind,And often by the vain possessed,Heard by the deaf, seen by the blind,I give the troubled spirit rest.

Solution

To fifty for my half appendTwo-thirds of one;The other third my whole will endWhen you have done.

Solution

Our belief that two portions of matter cannot occupy the same space at the same time is almost shaken by the following experiment:

Glass

If we introduce slowly some fine powdered sugar into a tumblerful of warm water a considerable quantity may be dissolved in the water without increasing its bulk.

It is thought that the atoms of the water are so disposed as to receive the sugar between them, as a scuttle filled with coal might accommodate a quantity of sand.

See, the letters that I bringChange their meaning quite;Spell a hard and heavy thing,Spell a soft and light.

Solution

Set a stool, as is shown in the diagram below, about nine or ten inches from the wall.

Stool test

Clasp it firmly by its two side edges, plant your feet well away from it, and rest your head against the wall. Now lift the stool, and then try, without moving your feet, to recover an upright position.

It will be as impossible as it is to stand on one leg while the foot of that leg rests sideways against a wall or door.

Place a set of billiard balls as is shown in the diagram, the spot ball overhanging a corner pocket, and the red and the plain white in a straight line with it, leaving an eighth of an inch between the balls.

Billiard balls

How can you pot the spot white with the plain white, using a cue, and without touching, or in any way disturbing, the red ball? There is not room to pass on either side between the red ball and the cushion.

Solution

Prepare a circular band of stiff paper, as is shown in the diagram, and balance it, with a coin on the top, on the lip of a bottle.

Coin and bottle

How can you most effectively transfer the coin into the bottle?

Solution

Search high or low, you’d find me where you list;For not a place without me can exist.I lose my head, and, seen with shoulders fair,Become the very fairest of the fair.Again I lose it, and, like some staunch hound,The first and best amongst a pack am found.And if at first both head and tail I loseI am a portion such as all would choose.

Solution

Place a strip of thin board, or a long wide flat ruler, on the edge of a table, so that it just balances itself, and spread over it an ordinary newspaper, as is shown in the illustration.

Ruler in paper

You may now hit it quite hard with your doubled fist, or with a stick, and the newspaper will hold it down, and remain as firmly in its place as if it were glued to the table over it. You are more likely to break the stick with which you strike than to displace the strip of wood or the paper. Try the experiment.

We are little airy creaturesAll of different voice and features.One of us in glass is set,One of us is found in jet.Another you may see in tin,And the fourth a box within.If the others you pursueThey can never fly from you.

Solution

Here is an after-dinner balancing trick, which it is well to practise with something less brittle than the bestglass:—

Knife bridge

It will be seen that the blades of the knives are so cunningly interlaced as to form quite a firm support.

Twice six is six, and soSix is but three;Three is just five you know,What can we be?Would you count more of us,Nine are but four of us,Ten are but three.

Solution

Here is a pretty little experiment, which shows the effect of liquids of different densities.

Eggs in water

Drop an egg into a glass vessel half full of water, it sinks to the bottom. Drop it into strong brine, it floats. Introduce the brine through a long funnel at the bottom of the pure water, and the water and the egg will be lifted, so that the egg floats between the water and the brine in equilibrium. The egg is denser than the water, and the brine is denser than the egg.

A friend to all the human raceFrom emperor to peasant,None is more missed when out of place,More opportune when present.Obedient to the general willI yield to due control;And yet the public twist me, tillThey put me in a hole!

A friend to all the human raceFrom emperor to peasant,None is more missed when out of place,More opportune when present.

Obedient to the general willI yield to due control;And yet the public twist me, tillThey put me in a hole!

Solution

Here is a very simple and effective little trick. Offer to balance an egg on its end on the lip of a glass bottle.

Egg on bottle

The picture shows how it is done, with the aid of a cork and a couple of silver forks.

(From “La Science Amusante”).

Two words of equal length we here indite,Which hold a famous father and his mate.Embracing five, with fifty left and right,The mother, looking both ways, keeps things straight.Her husband, following a thousand quite,With them has changed his sex, a funny fate,And if this lady lose her head, she might,Being a man, oppose the water-rate.

Two words of equal length we here indite,Which hold a famous father and his mate.Embracing five, with fifty left and right,The mother, looking both ways, keeps things straight.

Her husband, following a thousand quite,With them has changed his sex, a funny fate,And if this lady lose her head, she might,Being a man, oppose the water-rate.

Solution

The boy in this picture is blowing hard against the bottle, which is between his mouth and the candle flame.

Blowing boy

What will happen?

Solution

In marble walls as white as milk,Lined with a skin as soft as silk,Within a fountain crystal clearA golden apple doth appear.No doors are there to this stronghold,Yet thieves break in, and steal the gold.

Solution

Here is a simple way to make a needle float onwater:—

Floating needle

Fill a wineglass or tumbler with water, and on this lay quite flat a cigarette paper; place a needle gently on this, and presently the paper will sink, and the needle will float on the water.

A one-syllable adjective I,Indeterminate, misty, obscure:Reduce me by five, and then tryHow you like my attacks to endure.I’m now a two-syllable noun,My victims are hot and are cold;In country more rife than in town,I’m not such a pest as of old.

A one-syllable adjective I,Indeterminate, misty, obscure:Reduce me by five, and then tryHow you like my attacks to endure.

I’m now a two-syllable noun,My victims are hot and are cold;In country more rife than in town,I’m not such a pest as of old.

Solution

Here is a pile of ten draughtsmen—one black among nine white.

Draughtsmen

If I take another draughtsman, and with a strong pull of my finger send it spinning against the column, what will happen?

Solution

A headless man had a letter to write,He who read it had lost his sight.The dumb repeated it word for word,And deaf was the man who listened and heard.

Solution

I am rough, I am smooth,I am wet, I am dry;My station is low,My title is high.The King my lawful master is,I’m used by all, though only his.

Solution

How long would it take to divide completely a 2 ft. block of ice by means of a piece of wire on which a weight of 5 lb. hangs?

Ice

Solution

Without a dome, we are within a dome;Homeless and roofless, we have roof and home.Though frequent streams may flood our base and roof,We rest unharmed, and always waterproof.

Solution

I’m the most fearful of fates upon earth,Cut off my head and bright moments have birth,Lop off my shoulders, and riddle my riddle;Anything seems to be found in my middle.

Solution

When weak cords of equal strength are attached to opposite parts of a wooden or metal ball which is suspended by one of them, a sharp, sudden pull will snap the lower cord before the movement has time to affect the ball; but a gentle, steady pull will cause the upper cord to snap, as it supports the weight below it.

Ball and cords

I may be safe when honest ways prevail,With no unworthy tricks or jobbery.Cut off my head and fix it to my tail,And I become at once rank robbery.

Solution

Hold a pair of dice, and a cup for casting them, in one hand as is shown in the diagram.

Dice in cup

Now, holding the cup fast, throw up one of the dice and catch it in the cup. How can you best be sure of catching the other also in the cup?

Solution

Here is a metrical Enigma, which appeals with particular force to all married folk, and to our cousins in America:

This is of fellowship the token,Reverse it, and the bond is broken.

Solution

Build up seven dominoes into a double arch, as is shown in the diagram below, and place a single domino in the position indicated.

Dominoes

Now put the fore-finger carefully through the lower archway, and give this domino quite a smart tip up by pressing on its corner. What will happen if this is done cleverly? Try it.

Solution

A monk in a moment, by violence heated,Endangered the peace of his soul.To atone for my second, my first he repeatedJust ten times a day on my whole.

Solution

Place three pennies in contact in a line as is shown below, so that a “head” is between two “tails.”

Three pennies

Can you introduce the coin with a shaded surface between the other two in a straight line, without touching one of these two, and without moving the other?

Solution

Two syllables this word contains:Reverse them and then what remains?With cap and pipe and goggles tooThe comics hold him up to view,Reverse his parts you would declareA dog should not be quartered there.

Two syllables this word contains:Reverse them and then what remains?

With cap and pipe and goggles tooThe comics hold him up to view,Reverse his parts you would declareA dog should not be quartered there.

Solution

Though I myself shut up may be,My work is to set prisoners free.No slave his lord’s commands obeysWith more insinuating ways.All find me handy, sharp, and bright,Where men in wit and wine delight;While many keep me for their ease,And turn and twist me as they please.

Solution

Place ten coins in a circle, as is shown in this diagram, so that on all of them the king’s head is uppermost.

Coins

Now start from any coin you choose, calling it 1, the next 2, and so on, and turn thefourth, so that the tail is uppermost. Start again on any king’s head, and again turn the fourth, and continue to do this until all but one are turned.

Coins already turned are reckoned in the counting, but the count of “four” must fall on an unturned coin.

Can you find a plan for turning all the coins but one in this way without ever failing to count four upon a fresh spot, and to start on an unturned coin?

Solution

The diagram below shows how, using one hand only, and grasping a bottle of wine by its body, the contents can be poured out without cutting or boring the cork, or altogether removing it from the bottle.

Forks, bottle and cork

Transformed by art, and fond of port,I blister in the sun;But when I turn, and face the sport,Away full tilt I run;For if I double I am caught,And that can be no fun.

Solution

A man without eyes saw plums on a tree,He neither took plums nor plums left he.

Solution

A sharply-pointed knife with a heavy handle is stuck very lightly into the lintel of a door, and the nut that is to be cracked is placed under it, so that when the knife is released by a touch the nut is cracked.

Knife in lintel

What simple and certain plan can you suggest for making sure that the knife shall hit the nut exactly in the middle without fail?

Solution

Strange paradox! though my two halves are gone,I still remain an undivided whole.But were I double what I am, though one,I then should be but half, upon my soul!

Solution

If we throw an ordinary wine cork into a tub of water it will naturally float on its side. It is, however, possible to arrange a group of seven such corks, without fastening them in any way, so that they will float in upright positions.

Corks

Place them together, as is shown in the illustration, and, holding them firmly, dip them under the water till they are well wetted. Then, keeping them exactly upright, leave go quietly, and they will float in a compact bunch if they are brought slowly to the surface.

I start with five thousand, and take nothing off,Yet really in doing so nine-tenths I doff;And it proves with no strain upon numbers or reason,That the smaller are larger in size and in season.

Solution

As an exercise of patience and dexterity, try to balance a set of dominoes upon one that stands upon its narrowend:—

Dominoes

This is no easy matter, but a little patience will enable us to arrange the stones in layers, which can with care be lifted into place and balanced there.

With letters three indite my name,Add one to show what I became,Or try to tell what brought me fame.

Solution

We expect to puzzle our readers completely by thisdiagram:—

Enlarged photograph

It is simply the enlargement by photography of part of a familiar picture.

Solution

Eight letters respond to the questOf all for enjoyment athirst;Two articles lead to the rest,And the last of the rest is the first.

Solution

When letters five compose my nameI’m seldom seen but in a flame.Take off one letter, then you seeThat winter is the time for me.Another take, and I appearWhat many must be year by year.

Solution

Place a strip of smooth paper on a table so that it overhangs the side, as is shown in the diagram. Stand a new penny steadily on edge upon the paper.

Penny and paper

Take hold of the paper firmly, and give it a smart, steady pull. If this is properly done it will leave the penny standing unmoved in its place.

A shining wit pronounced of lateThat water in a freezing stateIs like an acting magistrate.What was the quibble in his pate?

Solution

By something formed I nothing am,Yet anything that you can name.In all things false, yet ever true,And still the same but never new;Like thought I’m in a moment gone,Nor can I ever be alone.

Solution

Two men, standing on the bank of a broad stream, across which they could not cast their fishing lines, could not agree as to its width. A bet on the point was offered and accepted, and the question was presently decided for them by an ingenious friend who came along, without any particular appliances for measurement.

He stood on the edge of the bank, steadied his chin with one hand, and with the other tilted his cap till its peak just cut the top of the opposite bank.

Clever man

Then, turning round, he stood exactly where the peak cut the level ground behind him, and, by stepping to that spot, was able to measure a distance equal to the width of the stream.

When you and I together meet,Then there are six to see and greet.If I and you should meet once more,Our company would be but four.And when you leave me all aloneI am a solitary one.

Solution

Paste or pin together the ends of a long strip of stiff paper so as to form a hoop, and place on the table a board resting at one end upon a book. Challenge those in your company to make the hoop run up the board without any impulse.

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