The initial letters from the nursery rhyme, Hickory Dickory Dock.
Hickory, dickory, dock,
The mouse ran up the clock,
The clock struck one,
The mouse ran down,
Hickory, dickory, dock.
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Puzzle 459
How many squares of any size on this chessboard do not contain a rook?
Reasoning There are 61 squares of size 1 x 1. There are 37 squares of size 2 x 2. There are 15 squares of size 3 x 3. There are 3 squares of size 4 x 4.
Giving a total of 61 + 37 + 15 + 3 = 116 squares.
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Puzzle 460
Take a normal piece of paper, exactly 0.1 mm thick.
Fold it in half, and then in half again, and again, and again.
Do this a total of 50 times.
How thick would the final paper be (if this could be done)?
Hint
We'll assume that we can actually fold it this many times.
Answer
Very thick indeed! The paper doubles in thickness with each fold. If we could fold it 50 times, it would be around 70 million miles thick!
1 fold would be 0.1 + 0.1 = 0.1 x 2 ^ 1 = 0.2 mm
2 folds would be 0.1 + 0.1 + 0.1 + 0.1 = 0.1 x 2 ^ 2 = 0.4 mm
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10 folds would be 0.1 x 2 ^ 10 = 102.4 mm
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50 folds would be 0.1 x 2 ^ 50 = 112,589,990,684,262.4 mm = 112,589,990.7 km (around 70 million miles).
