WORD AND LETTER PUZZLES

A third of twelve divideBy just a fifth of seven;And you will soon decideThat this must give eleven.

Solution

A motor goes 9 miles an hour uphill, 18 miles an hour downhill, and 12 miles an hour on the level. How long will it take to run 50 miles and return at once over the same course?

Solution

In firing at a markAhits it in two out of three shots,Bin three out of four, andCin four out of five. The mark was hit 931 times. If each fired the same number of shots, how many hits did each make, and how many shots were fired?

Solution

If a cat and a dog, evenly matched in speed, run a race out and back over a course 75 yards in all, and the dog always takes 5 feet at a bound and the cat 3 feet, which will win?

Solution

134. In a fog a man caught up a wagon going in the same direction at 3 miles an hour. If the wagon was just visible to him at a distance of 55 yards, and he could see it for five minutes, at how many miles an hour was he walking?

Solution

Three horses start in a race. In how many different ways can they be placed by the judge?

Solution

136. The New Zealanders, winning a match against Oxbridge, scored 34 points, from tries and tries converted into goals.

If every try had been converted they would have made four-fifths of the maximum which a score of 34 points from tries and goals can yield.

What is this maximum, and what was their actual score?

Solution

What is the smallest number, of which the alternate figures are cyphers, that is divisible by 9 and by 11?

Solution

Here is an interesting little problem:—A, with 8d. in his hand, meetsBandC, who have five and three loaves respectively. In hungry mood they all agree to share the loaves equally, and to divide the money fairly betweenBandC. How much does each receive?

Solution

139. When four money-boxes, containing pennies only, were opened and counted, it was found that the number in the first with half those in all the others, in the second with a third of all the others, in the third with a fourth of all the others, and in the fourth with a fifth of all the others, amounted in each case to 740. How much money did the boxes contain, and how was it divided?

Solution

Two steamers start together to make a trip to a far-off buoy and back. SteamerAruns all the time at 10 miles an hour. SteamerBdoes the passage out at 8 miles an hour, and the return at 12 miles. Will they regain port together?

Solution

A golf player has two clubs mended in London. One has a new head, the other a new leather face. The head costs four times as much as the face. At St Andrews it costs five times as much, and the leather face at St Andrews is half the London price. Including a shilling for a ball he pays twice the St Andrews charges for these repairs. What is the London charge for each?

Solution

142. Two children were asked to give the total number of animals in a pasture, where sheep and cattle were grazing. They were told the numbers of sheep and of cattle, but one subtracted, and gave 100 as the answer, and the other arrived at 11,900 by multiplication. What was the correct total?

Solution

143. Fifty-two stones are placed at intervals along a straight road. The distance between the first and the second is 1 yard, between the second and the third it is 3 yards, between the next two 5 yards, and so on, the intervals increasing each time by 2 yards.

How far would a tramp have to travel to earn five shillings promised to him when he had brought them one by one to a basket placed at the first stone?

Solution

On a division in the House of Commons, if the Ayes had been increased by fifty from the Noes, the motion would have been carried by five to three. If the Noes had received sixty votes from the Ayes, it would have been lost by four to three. Did the motion succeed? How many voted?

Solution

145. How many positions are there on the face of a watch in which the places of the hour and minute-hands can be interchanged so as still to indicate a possible time?

Solution

146. In a cricket match the scores in each successive innings are a quarter less than in the preceding innings. The match was played out, and the side that went in first won by fifty runs. What was the complete score?

Solution

147. A boy throws a cricket ball vertically upwards, and catches it as it falls just five seconds later. How high from his hands does the ball go?

Solution

148. It may be said of a section of the gigantic carpet at Olympia that had it been 5 feet broader and 4 feet longer it would have contained 116 more feet; but if 4 feet broader and 5 longer the increase would have been but 113 feet. What were its actual breadth and length?

Solution

In estimating the cost of a hundred similar articles, the mistake was made of reading pounds for shillings and shillings for pence in each case, and under these conditions the estimated cost was £212 18s. 4d. in excess of the real cost. What was the true cost of the articles?

Solution

150. The square of the number of my house is equal to the difference of the squares of the numbers of my next door neighbour’s houses on either side.

My brother, who lives in the next street, can say the same of the number of his house, though his number is not the same as mine. How are our houses numbered?

Solution

Two men of unequal strength are set to move a block of marble which weighs 270 lbs., using for the purpose a light plank 6 feet long. The stronger man can carry 180 lbs. How must the block be placed so as to allow him just that share of the weight?

Solution

A man has twenty coins, of which some are shillings and the rest half-crowns. If he were to change the half-crowns for sixpences and the shillings for pence he would have 156 coins. How many shillings has he?

Solution

153. Some coins are placed at equal distances apart on a table, so that they form the sides of an equilateral triangle.

From the middle of each side as many are then taken as equal the square root of the number on that side, and placed on the opposite corner coin. The number of coins on each side is then to the original number as 5 is to 4. How many coins are there in all?

Solution

154. A gardener, wishing to fence round a piece of ground with some light posts, found that if he set them a foot apart there would be 150 too few, but if placed a yard apart there would be 70 to spare. How many posts had he?

Solution

AgivesB£100 to buy 100 animals, which must be cows at £5 each, sheep at £1, and geese at 1s. How many of each sort can he buy?

Solution

John is twice as old as Mary was when he was as old as Mary is. John is now twenty-one. How old is Mary?

Solution

In a cricket matchAmade 35 runs;CandDmade respectively half and one-third as many asB, andB’s score was as much belowA’s asC’s was aboveD’s. What didB,C, andDeach score?

Solution

158. What is the least number which, divided by 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, or 10, leaves respectively as remainders 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9?

Solution

159. A square table stands on four legs, which are set at the middle point of its sides. What is the greatest weight that this table can uphold upon one of its corners?

Solution

160. Well pleased with the inspector’s report, the rector of a country parish came into his school with 99 new pennies in his pocket, and said that he would give them to the five boys in Standard VII. if they could, within an hour, show him how to divide them so that the first share should exceed the second by 3, be less than the third by 10, be greater than the fourth by 9, and less than the fifth by 16. What was the answer which would satisfy these conditions?

Solution

161. Some Indian raiders carried off a third of a flock of sheep, and a third of a sheep. Another party took a fourth of what remained, and a fourth of a sheep. Others took a fifth of the rest and three-fifths of a sheep. What was the number of the full flock, if there were then 409 left?

Solution

Three boys begin to fill a cistern.Abrings a pint at the end of every three minutes,Ba quart every five minutes, andCa gallon every seven minutes. If the cistern holds fifty-three gallons, in what time will it be filled, and who will pour in the last contribution?

Solution

163. A man late in the last century said that his age was the square root of the year in which he was born. In what year did he say this?

Solution

164. A dealer in Eastern curios sold a Satzuma vase for £119, and on calculation found that the number which expressed his profit per cent. expressed also the cost price in pounds of the vase. What was this number?

Solution

What is the chance of throwing at least one ace in a single throw with a pair of dice?

Solution

A thief starts running from a country house as fast as he can. Four minutes later a policeman starts in pursuit. If both run straight along the road, and the policeman gets over the ground one-third faster than the thief, how soon will he catch him?

Solution

Twenty-seven articles are exposed for sale on one of the stalls of a bazaar. What choice has a purchaser?

Solution

168. “How old areyou, dad?” said Nellie on her birthday, as her father gave her as many shillings as she was years old. His answer was quite a puzzle for a time, but with the help of her schoolfellows Nellie worked it out.

This is what hesaid:—

“I was twice as old as you areThe day that you were born.You will be just what I was thenWhen fourteen years are gone.”

How old was Nellie, and how old was her dad?

Solution

This Magic Cocoon is so cleverly spun that the word can be traced and read in many ways.

How many readings can you discover starting from one or other of the Cs, and passing up and down or sideways, but not diagonally, and never over the same letter twice in a reading? There are 756!

The Chronogram, severely classed by Addison as “a species of false wit” is a sentence in which the salient letters represent in Roman numerals some particular year. A good English specimen is this: “My Day Closed Is In Immortality.” The capital letters in these words give MDCIII., or 1603, the year in which Queen Elizabeth died.

The battle-cry at Montlhéry in 1465 was:—“à CheVaL, à CheVaL, gendarMes, à CheVaL!” Taking the letters printed incapitals—

QVI CHRISTI IAVDES CANTANTSANCTÆ PASSIONIS SVÆ VIRTVTEIN IPSO ET PATRE VNVM SINT.

This curious inscription is placed over the organ at Ober Ammergau. Add together its Roman numerals and they give the date at which the organ was dedicated. The English of itis:—

May those who sing the praises of Christ be by virtue of His Sacred Passion one in The Father and in Himself.

On a damaged inscription to Bishop Berkeley in Winchester Cathedral are the words—VIXI, LVXI—I have lived, I have shone. Added together in their values as Roman numerals the letters of these two words give his age exactly at his death—eighty-three.

On the return of the C.I.V. from the Boer War a prize was offered byTruthfor the best motto appropriate to them. This was to consist of three words of which the first must begin with C the second with I and the third with V.

The prize was taken by the following Latin motto which is singularly happy both in construction and inmeaning:—

The sequence of events is perfect; no letters but C.I.V. are used and the motto is a palindrome if read by syllables.

As in olden days some of the Psalms and other writings were constructed in acrostic form, so in the Middle Ages even serious writers would juggle with letters, as though they felt that such tricky methods were an aid to memory.

It was in this spirit that Guido Aretino, a Benedictine monk of Tuscany in 1204, gave names to the notes used in the musical scale from the first syllables of the lines of a Latin hymn. “Ut” is still used in France, though we and the Italians have substituted “do.”

Many of us know that there is a long verse in the Book of Ezra in which all the letters of thealphabet are used, taking “j” as “i” (Ezravii., v. 21).

This very curious coincidence also occurs in a comparatively short sentence in “The Beth Book,” by Sarah Grand:—“It was an exquisitely deep blue just then, with filmy white clouds drawn up over it like gauze;” and here “j” is itself in evidence.

Schopenhauer, the famous German philosopher, who was a confirmed bachelor and misogynist, was compelled while living at Frankfort to support an old lady who had been crippled by his violence. When her death came as a welcome relief to him, he composed the following cleverepitaph:—

Obit anus,Abit onus.

which by the interchange of two letters pictured the position. It may be freelyrendered:—

Old lady dies,My burden flies.

The following clever composition, which appeared in the pages ofTruth, contains adoublesequence of words, which increase a letter at a time, the same letters appearing in varied order until at last “o” culminates inthornless, and “a” inrestrainest. It is quite a remarkabletour-de-force.

O lack-a-day!ateve wesat,Onestarhad lit its lampsonhigh.We didnot notethe circling bat,Startfrom thestonewhen flitting nigh.For thestraitgate ofhonestdoubtShut off thethronesof Love and Gain;We dreamed not, as we mourned without,That Time’s swifttransit shortenspain.O Thou, Whotrainestsouls to shine,Though once we craved athornlesslot,This gracious truth we now divine:The bruised reed Thoustrainestnot;But byrestraints, that gently tame;RestrainestPassion’s kindling flame.

During the Reign of Terror, France and her people and position were thus alphabeticallydescribed:—

This elaborate method of piling up no less than seven consecutive “thats,” so that they make tolerable sense, was told to his boys during school-time by Dr Moberly, then headmaster of Winchester, and afterwards Bishop of Salisbury, just fifty yearsago:—

I saw that C saw.

C saw that that I saw.

I saw that that that C saw was so.

C saw that, that that that I saw was so.

I saw that, thatthatthat that C saw was so.

C sawthatthat, thatthatthat that I saw was so.

I sawthatthat, thatthatthat thatthatC saw was so.

If the Roman ladies and children, at their equivalent for Christmas, amused themselves by acting verbal charades, an excellent word was at their disposal, “sustineamus”—“let us endure,” which can be broken up exactly intosus,tinea,mus—a sow,a moth,a mouse.

1. Can you complete this word square, so that its four words read alike from top to bottom and from left to right?

Solution

2. Can you fill in this word square?

Solution

3. In this sentence, when complete,

So * * * * AG * * * * LATI * * * * X * * * * ITH

each group of four missing letters contains two pairs of letters which are alike. Can you on these lines complete the sentence?

Here is a similar sentence by way of illustration:

T * * * * M * * * * TERTAIN * * * * MUND,

which becomes when filledin—

TwowomenentertainedEdmund.

Solution

4. Can you complete this word square by substituting letters for the dots?

Solution

5. What word can be made with these?

L S D U D O D U D.

Solution

A lovelorn youth consulted a married lady on his condition, and was asked by her on a slip ofpaper:—

“Loruve?”

When he had deciphered this, and had answered in the affirmative, she handed to him another slip, on which this advice waswritten:—

What did it all mean?

Solution

Saint of Spain, whose daily wordTwenty years hath London heard!Sweet days, elastic metal, motion sharp.My halls once echoed to an Irish harp.The “son of sorrow,” honourable of yore.Dread goddess, loosing the loud dogs of war.Time’s atom—total of eternities.This name an insect bears, a patriot bore.“So do, yet hear me,” said Themistocles.

Solution

8. Can you complete this word square?

Solution

9. A spruce young Frenchman at afêteconsulted a modern oracle as to how he could best please the ladies. This was the mysticresponse:—

MECDOBIC.

Can you interpret it?

Solution

10. In our young days we have often wrestled with vulgar fractions, but apart from Algebra we have had no serious concern with any in which letters take the place of figures. A specimen of this sort, not known to science, is the followingcuriosity:—

moty= mo.

Solution

The puzzle inTruthwas recently founded upon “ourang-outang,” which had been cleverly buried. We will give a few of the best results. This isone:—

Poor wretch! a moisture filled his eye,“Do not rebuff a lonely boy,”Said he, “If ere I sink and dieYour smile—O! pardon will be joy!”

Anotheris:—

Though I jump, and row, and run,Cap or cup I never won.

What animals are buried in these lines?

Solution

12.

Fourteen letters here we fix,Vowels only two are spoken;All together these we mixInto what can not be broken.

Solution

13. There is an English word of thirteen letters in which the same vowel occurs four times, the same consonant six times, another consonant twice, and another once. Can you hit upon it?

Solution

14. Though brevity is said to be the soul of wit, we are too often flooded nowadays with a superabundance of words.

Here is an attempt at modest condensation. A familiar English proverb is quite clearly expressed to the solver’s seeing eyes in this briefphrase:—

WEISDO

What is the proverb?

Solution

15. Can you complete this word square?

Solution

16. The following puzzle lines are attributed to DrWhewell:—

Solution

17. Can you fill in the vacancies in this diamond?

Its words must read alike from left to right and from top to bottom.

Solution

18.

Back to Index Next