FEBRUARY 1, 2002

A BEARTOWN MYSTERY

Three people, a man, a teenager, and a youth recently stole a chest of jewelery from the forth floor of BEARTOWN MANSION. The three gained access to the jewels through the interior of the structure but all the doors locked behind them and the only way to escape was by an endless rope with two attached baskets that went from a fourth floor window to the ground.
When one basket was on the ground the other was up at the window. When a person was in the basket he could not help himself or be helped by others. If there was not a counterbalancing weight, he would fall freely and fatally to the ground.
The man weighed 195 pounds, the teenager 105 pounds, and the youth 90 pounds. The chest of jewels weighed 75 pounds. It was known that the weight of the descending basket by more than 15 pounds or the speed of descent would be so great as to injure a human being, though it would have no effect on the treasure. Also, only two persons, or one person and the jewelry chest, could be in one basket at one time.
The Beartown Constable figured out how the three escaped unharmed with the jewels. Can you???

Check the next issue of Beartown News for the answers.

FROM LAST MONTH

Three volumes of a set of books, all identical in size, were arranged on a bookshelf in the following order. Volume 1 (being pulled out) was on the left, Volume 2 (green) in the middle, and Volume 3 (yellow) on the right. The front and back covers of the books were each 1/8 inch thick. The pages of each book were exactly 3 inches thick. A bookworm bored a hole straight from the first page of Volume 1 to the last page of Volume 3. How far did the bookworm travel?

DO YOU KNOW?

The bookworm traveled only three and a half inches in going from the first page of Volume 1 to the last page of Volume 3.
When three books are stood together, the first page of Volume 1 is on the right and the last page of Volume 3 is on the left. The worm, starting from the first page of Volume 1, went through two covers, the paper in Volume 2, and through two more covers, which brought him to the last page of Volume 3.
This is a total of three and a half inches.

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