Problematics | Science meets art

It is common for ordinary folk, too, to pursue courses in the sciences and simultaneously showcase their talents in the arts. Which is why I have no hesitation presenting five fictional engineering students who are also members of a music band.

 

#Puzzle 143.1

Alia, Bina, Chitra, Deepa and Ekta (in alphabetical order) go to the same engineering college but are in five different branches. They all like Victorian literature, but each one has a different favourite author. We meet them while they are performing on stage, each playing a different instrument for their band.

 

(1) One of the five performers is a civil engineering student

(2) The performer in the middle (two performers either side) is a fan of Dickens

(3) Deepa, Bina and Ekta are left to right on stage (from the perspective of the audience)

(4) The electrical engineering student is immediately right of the computer engineering student

(5) The pianist, the guitarist, and the violinist appear left to right to the audience

(6) The Kipling fan and Alia are side by side

(7) The pianist, the mechanical engineering student, and Alia appear left to right

(8) The performer wearing a silver dress is immediately left of Chitra

(9) The performers wearing silver and yellow are side by side

(10) The performers wearing purple, blue and black appear left to right

(11) Alia is a fan of Hardy

(12) The mechanical engineering student has two performers to her left and two to her right

(13) The chemical engineering student and the Stevenson fan are side by side

(14) The trumpeter is somewhere to the right of Alia

(15) The drummer is somewhere to the right of Ekta

(16) The performer in purple is a fan of Carroll

(17) Alia is somewhere to the left of the performer in yellow

 

A note to prevent any possible misunderstanding. Whenever a clue describes three persons A, B, C as being left to right, they may or may not be in consecutive positions. A fourth person D and/or a fifth person E may (or may not) be somewhere among them. For example, if ABC are left to right, then ABDCE, ADBEC, ADBEC or other combinations are all possible as long as A appears somewhere left of B, and C appears farther right than B.

 

Who studies what, likes to read what, and is playing which instrument while dressed in which colour? For Einstein puzzles such as this, as regular readers know from experience, the best way to present the results is in tabular form.

 

#Puzzle 143.2

A runner is practising on the street, doing a steady 10kph while his coach in a car keeps pace to him. The coach notices a tea stall and picks up speed, leaving the runner behind. The runner keeps moving, his speed unchanged, and has taken 29 strides by the time the car reaches the tea stall. It takes him 116 more strides to reach the stall, from where he keeps going at the same steady rate, knowing that the coach will catch up with him after he has finished his cuppa.

At what speed did the coach drive to the tea stall after leaving the runner behind?

 

MAILBOX: LAST WEEK’S SOLVERS

#Puzzle 142.1

To work out the date of death and two birthdays in the cricket puzzle, one approach can be to look at multiples of 38 within the possible range of years. But you can also look for multiples of 39 within a smaller range, which I think is the cooler approach:

 

Hi Kabir,

The date of birth of the twins is 2 April 1989, date of birth of their granny is 25 June 1938, and date of her death is 25 June 1989.

(Granny’s year of birth) = (granny’s age at death) x 38

(Granny’s year of death) = (granny’s age at death) + (granny’s year of birth)

This means (granny’s year of death) = (granny’s age at death ) x 39.

Granny’s year of death is a multiple of 39 and is between 1983 (World Cup she celebrated) and 2011 (World Cup celebrated by the twins). 1989 is the only year that satisfies the above. Therefore, her age at death = 1989/39 = 51, and she was born in 1938. Granny’s year of death, 1989, is also the twins’ year of birth. The birthday dates can be deduced from the dates that India won the World Cups in 1983 (granny) and 2011 (twins).

— Sabornee Jana, Mumbai

 

#Puzzle 142.2

Hello Kabir,

Fraction of the tub filled by the 1st tap in 1 minute = 1/4

Fraction of the tub filled by the 2nd tap in 1 min = 1/5

Fraction of the tub emptied in 1 min on opening the plug = 1/10

When all three are open, fraction of tub filled in 1 minute

= 1/4 + 1/5 – 1/10 = 7/20

Hence time taken to fill the tub = 20/7 minutes.

— Dr Sunita Gupta, Delhi

 

Solved both puzzles: Sabornee Jana (Mumbai), Dr Sunita Gupta (Delhi), Anil Khanna (Ghaziabad), Yadvendra Somra (Sonipat), Professor Anshul Kumar (Delhi), Kanwarjit Singh (Chief Commissioner of Income-tax, retired), Ajay Ashok (Delhi), Shishir Gupta (Indore), YK Munjal (Delhi)

Solved Puzzle #142.2: Dr Vivek Jain (Baroda)

 

Problematics will be back next week. Please send in your replies by Friday noon to problematics@hindustantimes.com.