Babylas, Hilary, and Sosthenes have escaped the tower and divided their treasure into three bags. But now they must cross a river, and the boat can accommodate only two men at a time, or one man and a bag. None will trust another with his bag on the shore, but they agree that a man in the boat can be trusted to drop or retrieve a bag at either shore, as he’ll be too busy to tamper with it. How can they cross the river?
The Hard Stuff
For the really determined alcoholic, in 1885 Herbert Jenner patented a liquor flask hidden in a book:
The ornamental covering [has] been made so as to entirely cover and conceal the flask from observation, and at the same time admit of ready access to its contents. … That portion of the covering representing the edges of the leaves of the book is covered with marbled paper or otherwise treated, so as to give a natural appearance.
Charmingly, the book is titled Legal Decisions.
Inventory
A self-descriptive sentence by Howard Bergerson:
In this sentence, the word and occurs twice, the word eight occurs twice, the word four occurs twice, the word fourteen occurs four times, the word in occurs twice, the word occurs occurs fourteen times, the word sentence occurs twice, the word seven occurs twice, the word the occurs fourteen times, the word this occurs twice, the word times occurs seven times, the word twice occurs eight times, and the word word occurs fourteen times.
Contradictory Proverbs
Look before you leap.
He who hesitates is lost.
Absence makes the heart grow fonder.
Out of sight, out of mind.
You’re never too old to learn.
You can’t teach an old dog new tricks.
A word to the wise is sufficient.
Talk is cheap.
Fools rush in where angels fear to tread.
Nothing ventured, nothing gained.
Actions speak louder than words.
The pen is mightier than the sword.
Many hands make light work.
Too many cooks spoil the broth.
Seek and ye shall find.
Curiosity killed the cat.
Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth.
Beware of Greeks bearing gifts.
The best things in life are free.
There’s no such thing as a free lunch.
G.K. Chesterton said, “I owe my success to having listened respectfully to the very best advice, and then going away and doing the exact opposite.”
Down and Out
Three robbers, Babylas, Hilary, and Sosthenes, are stealing a treasure chest from the top of an old tower. Unfortunately, they’ve had to destroy their ladder to avoid pursuit, so they’ll have to descend using a crude tackle — a single pulley and a long rope with a basket at each end.
Babylas weighs 170 pounds, Hilary 100 pounds, Sosthenes 80 pounds, and the treasure 60 pounds. If the difference in weight between the two baskets is greater than 20 pounds then the heavier basket will descend too quickly and injure its occupant (though the treasure chest can withstand this). How can the three of them safely escape the tower with the treasure?
Double Vision
EYE is a palindrome in English, Spanish (OJO), and Polish (OKO).
Toes Up
In logic, the contrapositive of “If A, then B” is “If not B, then not A”: “If Socrates is a man, then Socrates is human” carries the same message as “If Socrates is not human, then Socrates is not a man.”
To make this vivid for his geometry students, W.P. Cooke of West Texas State University enlisted Tex Ritter’s song “Rye Whiskey”:
If the ocean was whiskey and I was a duck,
I’d swim to the bottom and never come up.
But the ocean ain’t whiskey and I ain’t no duck,
So I’ll play Jack-O-Diamonds and trust to my luck.
For it’s whiskey, rye whiskey, rye whiskey, I cry,
If I don’t get rye whiskey, I surely will die.
In contrapositive form, Cooke said, Ritter would sing:
If I never reach bottom or sometimes come up,
Then the ocean ain’t whiskey or I ain’t a duck.
But my luck can’t be trusted or the cards I’ll not buck,
So the ocean is whiskey or I am a duck.
For it’s whiskey, rye whiskey, rye whiskey, I cry,
If my death is uncertain then I get whiskey (rye).
(American Mathematical Monthly, November 1969)
01/31/2012 Related:
Andrew Marvell’s “To His Coy Mistress” is constructed as a three-paragraph logical argument:
“Had we but world enough, and time,
This coyness, lady, were no crime…”
(If A, then B)
“But at my back I always hear
Time’s winged chariot hurrying near…”
(Not A)
“Now therefore, while the youthful hue
Sits on thy skin like morning dew…
Now let us sport us while we may…”
(Therefore Not B)
Unfortunately, he’s trying to argue his way from “If A, then B” to “Not A, therefore not B,” which is invalid. One wonders how his coy mistress responded.
(Thanks, Cleve.)
Unquote
“I must ask anyone entering the house never to contradict me or differ from me in any way, as it interferes with the functioning of the gastric juices and prevents my sleeping at night.” — Sir George Sitwell
Black and White
Cold Shoulder
In 1944 a children’s book club sent a volume about penguins to a 10-year-old girl, enclosing a card seeking her opinion.
She wrote, “This book gives me more information about penguins than I care to have.”
American diplomat Hugh Gibson called it the finest piece of literary criticism he had ever read.