Puzzles  —  by  Dick Nuenke

 

 

 
Check out Quest  for more brain exercising.

 

 

 

 
The April 2001 cryptogram was: 
PEOPLE   LIVING  ON  THE  EQUATOR  ARE  CALLED  EQUESTRIANS. 

Correct answers came from  Delmar BurkittAndrzej DerdzinskiJohn JacksonAlma LittenJulia MinturnCarla NuenkeWilliam Tippery,  and  Sally Yocom

William Tippery  also had the April cryptogram correct (my mistake).

In Puzzle #2 there were 48 households using SWOOSH detergent and 48 using Brand X. 

The correct sequence of baby snapshots in the third puzzle was 5, 6, 4, 7, 3, 2, 1.

Andrzej Derdzinski  was the only one to submit answers to puzzles 2 and 3, both of which were correct.

 
 

 

 

 
 
This month's first puzzle is the cryptogram.  Each letter stands for a different letter in the decoded message. 

There are many actual newspaper headlines which due to their brevity in choice of words often lead to statements which are ambiguous (often on purpose I'm afraid).  Examples are Air Head Fired or Stud Tires Out.  This month's cryptogram is one such headline and it makes it a bit harder than the usual one.  Lots of X's in this one.

X J R D M T        D B W D Y M X        X J T        X K Q C C A        P H X        W J X X D V Z D Y X        X Q C H A E        P D        P D A M D E.       

 

 

 

 
 
This puzzle is by Martin Hollis from the column Tantalizer in the New Scientist by permission.

Four widows live on different floors of a tall apartment complex.  Gertrude and the coroner's widow are on adjacent floors.  The bishop's widow is four floors above Florence.  Emily and the architect's widow are ten floors apart.

There are three elevators, one stopping every third, one every fourth, and one every fifth floor.

No floor is served by all three elevators (except, of course, for floor 0).  None of the widows is served by even one elevator. 

Since none of these ladies will consent to walk upstairs, this means that when Gertrude visits the doctor's widow, she has to walk down at least four flights of stairs, no matter how often she changes elevators on the way.

What floor does Harriet live on and what did her late husband do for a living?


 

 

 

 
This puzzle is also adapted from a Martin Hollis Tantilizer.

You have probably seen those neat calendars where the date is given by two cubes laid side by side in a box so that only the top face of each is visible.  Each face of each cube bears a number and by suitable numbering and the necessary twiddling you can make the exposed faces show any number up to the necessary 31.  Numbers below 10 are shown as 01, 02, etc., and 6 and 9 are invertible.  What is the highest number the cubes can be set to count up to without missing any numbers?  And if you have three cubes to show numbers below 100 as 001, 012, etc., what is the highest number you can count up to continuously?


 

 

 

 
Correct answers and puzzle solvers will appear next month.  Send answers by  June 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 (best bet).

 

 

 

 

 
 

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