MINDSPORT/MUKUL SHARMA ADE BONOTO PICK BOD SBOG OOOO OOOO ‘The missing pattern ‘A blongs im the third! row B is asymmetrical CC contains the samé elements as one of the patterns above, But in a different oxder D dows not contain a straight line B satlsles none of the above conditions Now you have eight black trip thus: ‘Your problem is t0 convert these eight strips {nto savon black strips without losing any of the black material. One way, of course is 'o take one strip, chop it up into seven equal parts and add ‘those to the remaining seven. But there is ono ‘more, a more ingenious method. Care to try? Which reminds me of de Bono, that great pusher-upper of leteral thinking. Seo, !had once un this noat thing lifted from a Godard film ‘where tho protagonist suddenly, for no reason, asks his friend if he wants to make money’ Getting an immediate affirmative, he tolls him all has to do is mall forty thousand postcards to forty thousand preyuant womon promising to forecast the sex of the unborn child forafee of one ‘buck or your money back guaranteed. Half the time he's going to be right, So after paying back the misses he sill nets a cool twenty grand on the hits (less a bit on ovecheads). I thought thal was a ‘great one Ull de Bono eamo along with: A doctor sincerely believes that by a special test he can predict the sex of a child while it is still in the ‘womb. Ho charges the parents a fee for this service. But he accepts that he is not infallible, and whenever he proves wrong,he relurns the original fee with a generous ten per coat interest as well. He makes 4 lol of money. ‘Then he is ‘arrested. Of what do you think he's gully? you think isa sitter, think again, Fist thing ‘off we tend to think of is that the doctor is somehow guilty without wondering of what he is guilty. He genuinely believes in his method. When he is right the parents are happy and consider the money well spent. When he is wrong hhe apologises, and points out that he novar claimed infallibity, and not only returns the money but adds an’ interest. So of what is he guilty? Of making money? Of not doing. his Satlatics? OF believing in something he had not proved? Of not giving his elionts an accurate Dstimate of error? Of offering a service of which ‘others disapprove? Or what? Forum To begin with, a reader original: Dear M3, ‘uf would like to submit a problemyof my own ‘making(‘original’ as you would pat it). The problem consists of arranging seventeen ‘matchsticks somewhat lke Us (Note: fe something like 6=170', apa Delis ‘and making an intelligible equation out of thy ‘moving (displacing) three matchsticks only. disequation or non-equation sign to “A” is not allowed.) w. With cogards ‘Manish Mobil, Naan, KP ‘And then a reader sarcasm: Dear Mr Mukul Sharma, ‘The olution to the Endgame appoaring on Aug 18-24, 1985 in the Weekly is 121. The serise (that’s ‘what is the missing number in the series: 10, 11, 12, 13, 14,15, 16, 17,20, 22,24, 34, 100, 1000, 11141141411111117"— MS) is formatl by writing 16 in baso 16, 15, 14, 1,12, 11, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2 & 1 With regards, Sapthe Srinivasan, Jayanagar, Bangalore PS! Once in a while I go Uwrough Martin Gardner's articles where T have encountered this problem. Rally for your Santha. Only I got it from John ‘Cleveland about eight years back. But talk of de Bono: - Doar MS, eter Thechald's question ‘what's the quick= fst way to get an ‘E sign in the display of an ‘ordinary calculator (is) quite unbelievable isn't if? The answer to that problem is JUST ONE KBY DEPRESSION! Didn't got li? Simple, dear ‘chum, Pross the button for No 3 and then raverto the calculator in your hand. Ah! Edward de Tiana could take @ correspondence course from me, what? M A Sreedhar, Manda Ss a —=$—$_—_—t ‘Absolutoly, And P'vo just taken one from Sanjay Gupta: «I think [can guess the fallacy of Mr Shentanu Pandit’s story about: the historian. As the historian died in his sleep while dreaming, lhowr could the author of the story, or Shantanu, cor for that matter anyone in the world, know what he was drowning? Good question. But then $ Pandit had said that 4st wae in ény ciae a Tong winded PJ. Endganite ‘You're in @ totally bare room, totally birthday. bare naked. The room has only four walls, a ceiling floor and a wooden door with a built-in ‘wooden handle, No latches, no nails, norivets, no screwsin fact, nothing metallic. You have with you two pieces of identically shaped, sizod, Coloured, etc metal. One of them isa bar magnet, the other ian’t, How can you tell which is which? “LUSTRATED WaARLY OF INGA MOABER 3,965. 6