CURIOUS CALCULATIONS
1.
The only sum of money which satisfies the condition that its pounds, shillings, and pence written down as a continuous number, exactly give the number of farthings which it represents, is £12, 12s., 8d., for this sum contains 12,128 farthings.
2.
If, when a train, on a level track, and running all the time at 30 miles an hour, slips a carriage which is uniformly retarded by brakes, and this comes to rest in 200 yards, the train itself will then have travelled 400 yards.
The slip carriage, uniformly retarded from 30 miles an hour to no miles an hour, has an average speed of 15 miles an hour, while the train itself, running on at 30 miles an hour all the time, has just double that speed, and so covers just twice the distance.
3.
The traveller had fivepence farthing when he said to the landlord, “Give me as much as I have in my hand, and I will spend sixpence with you.” After repeating this process twice he had no money left.