of many was proposed: What two numbers, containing together all the nine digits, will, when multiplied together, produce another
number (the highest possible) containing also all the nine digits? The nought is not allowed anywhere.
86.--QUEER MULTIPLICATION.
If I multiply 51,249,876 by 3 (thus using all the nine digits once, and once only), I get 153,749,628 (which again contains all the nine digits once). Similarly, if I multiply 16,583,742 by 9 the Pg 16result is 149,253,678, where in each case all the nine digits are used.
Now, take 6 as your multiplier and try to arrange the remaining eight digits so as to produce by multiplication a number containing all
nine once, and once only. You will find it far from easy, but it can be done.
87.--THE NUMBER CHECKS PUZZLE.
Where a large number of workmen are employed on a building it is customary to provide every man with a little disc bearing his number. These are hung on a board by the men as they arrive, and serve as a check on punctuality. Now, I once noticed a foreman remove a number of these checks from his board and place them on a split-ring which he carried in his pocket. This at once gave me the idea for a good puzzle. In fact, I will confide to my readers that this is just how ideas for puzzles arise. You cannot really create
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an idea: it happens--and you have to be on the alert to seize it when it does so happen.
It will be seen from the illustration that there are ten of these checks on a ring, numbered 1 to 9 and 0. The puzzle is to divide them into three groups without taking any off the ring, so that the first group multiplied by the second makes the third group. For example, we can divide them into the three groups, 2--8 9 7--1 5 4 6 3, by bringing the 6 and the 3 round to the 4, but unfortunately the first two when multiplied together do not make the third. Can you separate them correctly? Of course you may have as many of the checks as you like in any group. The puzzle calls for some ingenuity, unless you have the luck to hit on the answer by chance.
88.--DIGITAL DIVISION.
It is another good puzzle so to arrange the nine digits (the nought excluded) into two groups so that one group when divided by the other produces a given number without remainder. For example, 1 3 4 5 8 divided by 6 7 2 9 gives 2. Can the reader find similar arrangements producing 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9 respectively? Also, can he find the pairs of smallest possible numbers in each case? Thus,
1 4 6 5 8 divided by 7 3 2 9 is just as correct for 2 as the other example we have given, but the numbers are higher.
89.--ADDING THE DIGITS.
If I write the sum of money, PS987, 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 amount possible under the conditions. Now find the smallest possible amount, pounds, shillings, pence, and farthings being all represented. You need not use more of the nine digits than you choose, but no digit may be repeated throughout. The nought is not allowed.
90.--THE CENTURY PUZZLE.
Can you write 100 in the form of a mixed number, using all the nine digits once, and only once? The late distinguished French mathematician, Edouard Lucas, found seven different ways of doing it, and expressed his doubts as to there being any other ways. As a matter of fact there are just eleven ways and no more. Here is one of them, 91 5742/638. Nine of the other ways have similarly two figures in the integral part of the number, but the eleventh expression has only one figure there. Can the reader find this last form?
91.--MORE MIXED FRACTIONS.
When I first published my solution to the last puzzle, I was led to attempt the expression of all numbers in turn up to 100 by a
mixed fraction containing all the nine digits. Here are twelve numbers for the reader to try his hand at: 13, 14, 15, 16, 18, 20, 27, 36,
40, 69, 72, 94. Use every one of the nine digits once, and only once, in every case.
92.--DIGITAL SQUARE NUMBERS.
Here are the nine digits so arranged that they form four square numbers: 9, 81, 324, 576. Now, can you put them all together so as to
form a single square number--(I) the smallest possible, and (II) the largest possible?
93.--THE MYSTIC ELEVEN.
Can you find the largest possible number containing any nine of the ten digits (calling nought a digit) that can be divided by 11 without a remainder? Can you also find the smallest possible number produced in the same way that is divisible by 11? Here is an example, where the digit 5 has been omitted: 896743012. This number contains nine of the digits and is divisible by 11, but it is neither the largest nor the smallest number that will work.
94.--THE DIGITAL CENTURY.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 = 100.
It is required to place arithmetical signs between the nine figures so that they shall equal Pg 17100. Of course, you must not alter the present numerical arrangement of the figures. Can you give a correct solution that employs (1) the fewest possible signs, and (2) the fewest possible separate strokes or dots of the pen? That is, it is necessary to use as few signs as possible, and those signs should be of the simplest form. The signs of addition and multiplication (+ and x) will thus count as two strokes, the sign of subtraction (-) as one stroke, the sign of division (/) as three, and so on.
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95.--THE FOUR SEVENS.
In the illustration Professor Rackbrane is seen demonstrating one of the little posers with which he is accustomed to entertain his class. He believes that by taking his pupils off the beaten tracks he is the better able to secure their attention, and to induce original and ingenious methods of thought. He has, it will be seen, just shown how four 5's may be written with simple arithmetical signs so as to represent 100. Every juvenile reader will see at a glance that his example is quite correct. Now, what he wants you to do is this: Arrange four 7's (neither more nor less) with arithmetical signs so that they shall represent 100. If he had said we were to use four 9's we might at once have written 999/9, but the four 7's call for rather more ingenuity. Can you discover the little trick?
96.--THE DICE NUMBERS.
I have a set of four dice, not marked with spots in the ordinary way, but with Arabic figures, as shown in the illustration. Each die, of course, bears the numbers 1 to 6. When put together they will form a good many, different numbers. As represented they make the number 1246. Now, if I make all the different four-figure numbers that are possible with these dice (never putting the same figure more than once in any number), what will they all add up to? You are allowed to turn the 6 upside down, so as to represent a 9. I do not ask, or expect, the reader to go to all the labour of writing out the full list of numbers and then adding them up. Life is not long enough for such wasted energy. Can you get at the answer in any other way?
VARIOUS ARITHMETICAL AND ALGEBRAICAL PROBLEMS. "Variety's the very spice of life,
That gives it all its flavour."
COWPER: The Task.
97.--THE SPOT ON THE TABLE.
A boy, recently home from school, wished to give his father an exhibition of his precocity. He pushed a large circular table into the corner of the room, as shown in the illustration, so that it touched both walls, and he then pointed to a spot of ink on the extreme edge.
"Here is a little puzzle for you, pater," said the youth. "That spot is exactly eight inches from one wall and nine inches from the other. Can you tell me the diameter of the table without measuring it?"
The boy was overheard to tell a friend, "It Pg