Part 1

Transcriber's Notes:

Underscores "" before and after a word or phrase indicate italics_ in the original text. Equals signs "=" before and after a word or phrase indicate =bold= in the original text. The carat symbol "^" is used to indicate a superscript. Small capitals have been converted to BLOCK capitals. Antiquated spellings have been preserved. Typographical errors have been silently corrected but other variations in spelling and punctuation remain unaltered. Answers are provided at the end of the book to numbered questions, however in the original text, numbers 237 to 241 were omitted for some reason.

“LAUGH AND GROW FAT.”

THE PUZZLE KING.

AMUSING ARITHMETIC. BOOK-KEEPING BLUNDERS. COMMERCIAL COMICALITIES. CURIOUS “CATCHES.” PECULIAR PROBLEMS. PERPLEXING PARADOXES. QUAINT QUESTIONS. QUEER QUIBBLES. SCHOOL STORIES. INTERESTING ITEMS.

Tricks with Figures, Cards, Draughts, Dice, Dominoes, Etc., Etc., Etc.

By JOHN SCOTT,

Author of “How to Become Quick at Figures,” “Doctrine of Chance,” “Tank Calculator,” “Cyanide Vat Calculator,” &c., &c.

INSTRUCTIVE and AMUSING.

Copyright.

Brisbane, H. J. DIDDAMS & CO., Printers and Publishers, Elizabeth Street, MDCCCXCIX.

PREFACE.

A puzzle is not solved, impatient sirs, By peeping at its answer in a trice: When Gordius, the ploughboy King of Phrygia, Tied up his implements of husbandry In the far-famed knot, rash Alexander Did not undo by cutting it in twain.

It is hoped that this little book may prove useful, not only in connection with puzzles for home amusement, but that by inducing people to consider the various difficulties met with in business and trade some at least may be led to greater success in dealing with the practical puzzles and problems of everyday life.

It is the special desire of the author to produce a “sugar-coated mathematical pill,” as he feels convinced that many can more easily grasp the truth when it is put before them in a light manner than when brought forward in the usual orthodox fashion.

No pains have been spared to make the PUZZLE KING the best of its kind yet produced, and the author here wishes to thank his many friends who have so kindly assisted him. It would be well-nigh impossible to individualize; but especial thanks are due to Thos. Finney, Esq., M.L.A. (Brisbane), for the interest he has manifested throughout, and the kindly help he has so often rendered the author.

It might afford our readers some pleasure to know that this work is entirely Australian. The printers, artist, and author are all colonial-born, and the production of the former two, at any rate, will compare favourably with that of any others.

The engravings throughout have been in the hands of Mr. Murray Fraser and staff, whose experience in this special art has tended to make the book more attractive than it otherwise would have been.

The author is not above receiving any suggestions or contributions in the way of peculiar puzzles or commercial comicalities, which might enhance the value of the book. Intending contributors are invited to communicate to the address given below, and can rest assured that they will be remunerated according to the merits of their communications.

THE AUTHOR. 44, Pitt Street, Sydney.

Refer to Appendix for Answers to numbered Problems.

READING BIG NUMBERS.

Wonderful Calculations.

Although we are accustomed to speak in the most airy fashion of millions, billions, &c., and “rattle” off at a breath strings of figures, the fact still remains that we are unable to grasp their vastness. Man is finite--numbers are infinite!

ONE MILLION

Is beyond our conception. We can no more realise its immensity, than we can the tenth part of a second. It should be a pleasing fact to note that commercial calculations do not often extend beyond millions; generally speaking, it is in the realm of speculative calculation only, such as probability, astronomy, &c., that we are brought face to face with these unthinkable magnitudes.

Who, for instance, could form the slightest idea that the odds against a person tossing a coin in the air so as to bring a head 200 times in succession are 160693804425899027554196209234116260522202993782792835301375 (over I decillion, &c.) to 1 against him? Suppose that all the men, women and children on the face of the earth were to keep on tossing coins at the rate of a million a second for a million years, the odds would still be too great for us to realise against any one person succeeding in performing the above feat, and yet the number representing the odds would be only half as long as the one already given.

Or, who could understand the other equally astounding fact that Sirius, the Dog-star, is 130435000000000 miles from the earth, or even that the earth itself is 5426000000000000000000 tons in weight.