SOLUTIONS.

1.—­A POST-OFFICE PERPLEXITY.

The young lady supplied 5 twopenny stamps, 30 penny stamps, and 8 twopence-halfpenny stamps, which delivery exactly fulfils the conditions and represents a cost of five shillings.

2.—­YOUTHFUL PRECOCITY.

The price of the banana must have been one penny farthing.  Thus, 960 bananas would cost L5, and 480 sixpences would buy 2,304 bananas.

3.—­AT A CATTLE MARKET.

Jakes must have taken 7 animals to market, Hodge must have taken 11, and
Durrant must have taken 21.  There were thus 39 animals altogether.

4.—­THE BEANFEAST PUZZLE.

The cobblers spent 35s., the tailors spent also 35s., the hatters spent 42s., and the glovers spent 21s.  Thus, they spent altogether L6,13s., while it will be found that the five cobblers spent as much as four tailors, twelve tailors as much as nine hatters, and six hatters as much as eight glovers.

5.—­A QUEER COINCIDENCE.

Puzzles of this class are generally solved in the old books by the tedious process of “working backwards.”  But a simple general solution is as follows:  If there are n players, the amount held by every player at the end will be m(2^n), the last winner must have held m(n + 1) at the start, the next m(2n + 1), the next m(4n + 1), the next m(8n + 1), and so on to the first player, who must have held m(2^{n — 1}n + 1).

Thus, in this case, n = 7, and the amount held by every player at the end was 2^7 farthings.  Therefore m = 1, and G started with 8 farthings, F with 15, E with 29, D with 57, C with 113, B with 225, and A with 449 farthings.

6.—­A CHARITABLE BEQUEST.

There are seven different ways in which the money may be distributed:  5 women and 19 men, 10 women and 16 men, 15 women and 13 men, 20 women and 10 men, 25 women and 7 men, 30 women and 4 men, and 35 women and 1 man.  But the last case must not be counted, because the condition was that there should be “men,” and a single man is not men.  Therefore the answer is six years.

7.—­THE WIDOW’S LEGACY.

The widow’s share of the legacy must be L205, 2s. 6d. and 10/13 of a penny.

8.—­INDISCRIMINATE CHARITY

The gentleman must have had 3s. 6d. in his pocket when he set out for home.

9.—­THE TWO AEROPLANES.

The man must have paid L500 and L750 for the two machines, making together L1,250; but as he sold them for only L1,200, he lost L50 by the transaction.

10.—­BUYING PRESENTS.

Jorkins had originally L19, 18s. in his pocket, and spent L9, 19s.

11.—­THE CYCLISTS’ FEAST.

There were ten cyclists at the feast.  They should have paid 8s. each; but, owing to the departure of two persons, the remaining eight would pay 10s. each.

12.—­A QUEER THING IN MONEY.

The answer is as follows:  L44,444, 4s. 4d. = 28, and, reduced to pence, 10,666,612=28.