columbus area mensa, col-m, puzzles, 2000 december

Puzzles — by Dick Nuenke

Check out Quest for more brain exercises.

The November cryptogram was:

JAZZ IS NOT DEAD, IT JUST SMELLS THAT WAY — FRANK ZAPPA

Correct answers came from Andrzej Derdzinski, Jeff Gerkin, John Jackson, Alma Litten, Julia Minturn, Carla Nuenke, and Sally Yocom. Alma also gets credit for October's second cryptogram, my oversight.

The second puzzle dealt with making varying numbers of squares with exactly 12 matchsticks. Here's how for 3, 4, 5, and 6 squares:

3:	three isolated 1-unit squares
4:	two side-by-side sharing a side (7 matches) and the other five forming a "tent" over one of the squares
5:	one 2-unit square with a cross in the center made of 4 sticks forming four smaller squares
6:	a three-dimensionial cube with six faces being the 6 squares

The third puzzle was a logic puzzle, which when worked through shows that all persons who grow roses wear false teeth.

Correct answers to both #2 and #3 came from Andrzej Derdzinski, Jeff Gerken, Norman James, and Thomas McNamee. Norman and Thomas are both from Columbus are are submitting answers for the first time. Norman joined Mensa earlier this year; Thomas has been a member since 1993.

This month's first puzzle is the cryptogram. Each letter stands for a different letter in the decoded message. This one should prove more timely than difficult.

M R Q B M C H G Q D G V F J R Y G C R C Y L E Y C M J Q Y D Y G Q M L B Z F G C R
— G. Y D V B J

This puzzle is by Josie Hewson from the column Enigma in the New Scientist by permission.

Four married couples went together to the swimming pool and each person got a different locker number. Alan had the lowest with 846 and Janet had the highest with 875. Diane had 847. Chirstine had 865. Victor (who is not married to Diane) had 867. Steven had 869, Terry had 874, and I forgot Nicola's. Among the eight people each person had at most one sibling in the group. The interesting fact was that, forany two people in the group, their locker numbers had a factor (other than one) in common if and only if they were related as in-laws. What was Nicola's locker number?

This puzzles is also by Josie Hewson.

At the right is a map of the lanes in my village. Each day I do a round walk which consists of starting at A, walking along AB, continuing on a walk along the lanes passing each other junction box just once and then ending back where I started at A.

For example, A B C D E F G A, using lanes AB, BC, CD, DE, EF, FG, and GA, is the route I took yesterday. On the route I took today the fourth lane I walked along was nearly flooded. I realized that if it became impassable, then in the future I would just have one way of doing my daily round walk.

What was my route today?

Correct answers and puzzle solvers will appear next month. Send answers by December 11th to Dick Nuenke; 1460 Kingsgate Rd.; Columbus, OH 43221 or call in (recording 24 hours) to 614-326-0452; fax to 614-292-4118; or e-mail to rnuenke@columbus.rr.com.