M i n d s p O r T We Have Lift- Off

E4 A guy called Brad Edward says space elevators must be built to reduce the risks of shuttles. He’s planning to build a carbon nanotube ribbon that’s three feet wide, anchored somewhere in Ecuador, stretching a mind- numbing 72,000km upwards into space. The centrifugal force of Earth’s rotation will keep the ribbon taut. ( The space elevator will slide up and down the ribbon, but that’s immaterial to the problem). The problem is — if I sneak onto the platform in Ecuador and snip off the ribbon at its base, what will happen?

No good? Try this instead: Ms Arnold’s home was recently the site of a pre- wedding party for her daughter. In attendance were Ms Botti, Ms Connor and Ms Densgrove, with their three unmarried daughters. Figure out each woman’s full name, who the mothers are and who are the daughters from the four clues given: ( 1) Amy, Candice, Delia and Dot are all old friends of the bride- to- be and her mother; ( 2) Three of the four women in their twenties were Ann, Beth’s daughter and the woman in that generation whose first and last initials are the same; ( 3) Three of the four women in their forties were Candice, Delia’s mother and the woman in that generation whose first and last initials are the same; ( 4) Beverly and Carol are the same age. slid down 1cm, pressed against the yellow pencil, an extra 1cm of paint is smeared on the yellow pencil. In the next upward movement of the blue pencil, the yellow pencil gets 1cm more… At the end of two moves, both pencils have 2cm of paint. So, in the end, both pencils are smeared with 6cm of paint.

— Balagopalan Nair balagopalannair@ gmail. com

( The other riddle was: “You throw away the outside and cook the inside. Then you eat the outside and throw away the inside. What did you just eat?” — MS) nirajnandish@ icloud. com

The answer is an ear of corn. You throw away the husk and cook the kernel. Then you eat the kernel and throw away the cob. — Jaelyne Tauro, jaelynetauro@ gmail. com

Corn on the cob, because you throw away the husk ( outside); cook it ( inside) and eat the kernels ( outside), and throw away the cob ( inside).

Works with most non- veg foods too. Throw away skin/ feathers, cook and eat meat, throw away bones.

( Meanwhile, a reader has some more regarding the LOX problem. — MS)

I would like to point out that in your question “Can a human being drown in a pool of liquid oxygen which is at room temperature?”, you totally did not mention the presence of any perfluorocarbon liquid. It was just OXYGEN.

— akshit0201@ gmail. com ( Yes, you’re correct, but my idea was only to show that breathing a liquid with a high oxygen content is possible. — MS)

ENDGAME How do you account for the fact that if any set of integers is repeated six times to form another integer it must ( almost) always be divisible by 7?( Examples: 121212121212, 111111, 5 5 5 5 5 5 , 4 5 1 4 5 1 4 5 1 4 5 1 4 5 1 4 5 1 , 9 0 9 0 9 0 909090, etc.) Can anyone think of exceptions? ( Mukul can be

reached at mukul. mindsport@

gmail. com)