POST AND RAIL PUZZLE
Put the following question to the company: Supposing there was a tunnel through a hill and a post and rail fence was constructed through it, and another fence was made exactly above it, over the hill, how many more posts would be required for the latter route, supposing they were the same distance apart by both routes?
After several calculations have been made you can astonish the company by telling them that exactly the same number of posts would be required for both routes, which you can prove by making a rough sketch of the diagram, [Fig. 25], and placing matches on it to represent the posts.
Fig. 25.
SIMPLE MISCELLANEOUS TRICKS
A GOOD AFTER-DINNER TRICK
Procure an egg, an apple, an orange, and two dozen nuts. Place the latter on a plate, and request three persons during your absence from the room to each pocket one of the three former, asserting that you will eventually state in whose pockets the different articles are to be found. On returning to the room present to one of the persons you have asked to assist you one nut, to a second person two nuts, and to the third three nuts, which will of course leave eighteen nuts on the plate. You must mentally name the person to whom you gave one nut “number one,” to the person holding two nuts “number two,” and the one who has three nuts “number three.”
Announce your intention of again leaving the room, and request your three assistants to help themselves during your absence to nuts as follows—the one holding the apple to take the same number of nuts you presented him with, the one who has the egg to twice as many as you gave him, and the holder of the orange to four times as many as he originally received.
Impress on them that the number of nuts they take must be in addition to those they already hold.