265.—­A PUZZLE FOR CARD-PLAYERS.

Twelve members of a club arranged to play bridge together on eleven evenings, but no player was ever to have the same partner more than once, or the same opponent more than twice.  Can you draw up a scheme showing how they may all sit down at three tables every evening?  Call the twelve players by the first twelve letters of the alphabet and try to group them.

266.—­A TENNIS TOURNAMENT.

Four married couples played a “mixed double” tennis tournament, a man and a lady always playing against a man and a lady.  But no person ever played with or against any other person more than once.  Can you show how they all could have played together in the two courts on three successive days?  This is a little puzzle of a quite practical kind, and it is just perplexing enough to be interesting.

267.—­THE WRONG HATS.

“One of the most perplexing things I have come across lately,” said Mr. Wilson, “is this.  Eight men had been dining not wisely but too well at a certain London restaurant.  They were the last to leave, but not one man was in a condition to identify his own hat.  Now, considering that they took their hats at random, what are the chances that every man took a hat that did not belong to him?”

“The first thing,” said Mr. Waterson, “is to see in how many different ways the eight hats could be taken.”

“That is quite easy,” Mr. Stubbs explained.  “Multiply together the numbers, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8.  Let me see—­half a minute—­yes; there are 40,320 different ways.”

“Now all you’ve got to do is to see in how many of these cases no man has his own hat,” said Mr. Waterson.

“Thank you, I’m not taking any,” said Mr. Packhurst.  “I don’t envy the man who attempts the task of writing out all those forty-thousand-odd cases and then picking out the ones he wants.”

They all agreed that life is not long enough for that sort of amusement; and as nobody saw any other way of getting at the answer, the matter was postponed indefinitely.  Can you solve the puzzle?

268.—­THE PEAL OF BELLS.

A correspondent, who is apparently much interested in campanology, asks me how he is to construct what he calls a “true and correct” peal for four bells.  He says that every possible permutation of the four bells must be rung once, and once only.  He adds that no bell must move more than one place at a time, that no bell must make more than two successive strokes in either the first or the last place, and that the last change must be able to pass into the first.  These fantastic conditions will be found to be observed in the little peal for three bells, as follows:—­

1 2 3 2 1 3 2 3 1 3 2 1 3 1 2 1 3 2

How are we to give him a correct solution for his four bells?

269.—­THREE MEN IN A BOAT.

A certain generous London manufacturer gives his workmen every year a week’s holiday at the seaside at his own expense.  One year fifteen of his men paid a visit to Herne Bay.  On the morning of their departure from London they were addressed by their employer, who expressed the hope that they would have a very pleasant time.