[134.] A and B marry, their respective ages being in proportion to 3 and 4. Now after they have been married 14 years their ages are as 5 to 6, and the age of A is 5 times that of her youngest child, who was born when the parents’ ages were as 4 to 5. Required: the ages of A and B when they were married, and the age of the youngest child now that they have been married 14 years.
AN APPALLING “SUM.”
At a school, a short time back, the pupils were given, as a home lesson, the task of subtracting from 880,788,889 the number 629 so often till nothing remained.
The boys worked on for hours without any perceptible diminution of the figures, and at length gave up the task in despair. Some of the parents then tried their hands, with no better success. For, in order to work out the sum, the number 629 would have to be subtracted 1,400,300 times, leaving 189 as a remainder.
Working 12 hours a day, at the rate of 3 subtractions per minute, it would take over 1 year and 9 months to complete the sum which had been set the poor lads for their home lesson.
A MILITARY LUNCHEON.
[135.] A certain number of Volunteers—namely, Commissioned Officers, Non-commissioned Officers, and Privates had a dinner bill to pay; there were, it seemed, half as many more Non-Com. Officers as Com., one-third as many more Privates as Non-Com. Officers, and they agreed that each Commissioned Officer should pay one-third as much again as each Non-Com., and each Non-Com. one-fifth as much again as each Private; but 1 Commissioned and 2 Non-Com. Officers slipped away without paying their portion (5s.), each of the others had to pay in consequence 4d. more. What was the amount of the bill, and the number of each present?