Dessert.
PARADOXES AND PUZZLES.
1. A captain of a ship who was driven out to sea by a heavy storm, found he had provisions sufficient for only half his crew, and decided to throw overboard half of them, to be selected by lot. There were twenty men, half of them white, and half black; he placed them all in a circle, saying that every fifth man in three times round should be thrown overboard. He appeared to arrange them carelessly, yet he managed so that the lot fell to the ten black men. How could it be?
2. The Wolf, the Goat and the Cabbages.—Suppose a man has a wolf, a goat, and a basket of cabbages, on the bank of a river; he wishes to cross with them, but his boat can only hold one of the three beside himself. He must therefore take them over one by one, in such a manner that the wolf shall have no opportunity to devour the goat, nor the goat the cabbages. How is he to accomplish it?
3. The impossibility made possible.—Place three pieces of money on the table and desire some person to take away the piece from the centre without touching it.
4. Two men eat oysters together for a wager, to see who could eat the greatest number. One eat ninety-nine only, the other eat a hundred and won. How many did the winner eat?
5. What is the difference between six dozen dozen and a half a dozen dozen?