1) Suited to these difficult economic times, find a couple of clichés and a definition from elementary science to prove that for a fixed amount of work, the more you know, the less you’re paid.

2) This is typical of the count-carefully genre of puzzle. We’re going to cross the Atlantic by boat from New York to London. A ship leaves London every day at four pm (GMT) bound for New York and arrives exactly seven days later. Similarly, at four pm GMT every day, a ship (including ours) leaves New York for London and arrives exactly seven days later. All boats follow the same route and avoid collision by trivial deviations. How many ships from London does our vessel encounter during its voyage? Don’t include ships that arrive just as ours leaves New York, or those that leave London just as ours arrives?

The answers to last month’s puzzles were supplied last month.

Here are the answers to this month’s puzzles:

1) The definition from elementary science is: power = work/time. But time is money (one cliché), which means that power = work/money. If knowledge is power (another cliché), then knowledge = work/money. Expressed differently, for a fixed amount of work, knowledge and money are inversely related; the more you know, the less you’re paid. [Adapted from Ian Stewart’s Hoard of Mathematical Treasures]

2) 13. Assume that our ship leaves New York on January 10. It arrives January 17. The ship that left London on January 3 arrives in New York just as we depart, so we don’t count that one. While on the ocean, we meet the vessels that left London on January 4 through to January 16 inclusive. 13 vessels. [Adapted from Ian Stewart’s Hoard of Mathematical Treasures]

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