Fun & Fundamentals of Mathematics - Narlikar

Universities Press MATHEMATICS
Jayant V Narlikar
Mangala Narlikar
Fun and
Fundamentals of
MATHEMATICS
Jayant V Narlikar
Mangala Narlikar
Universities Press
Universities Press (India) Private Limited
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© Universities Press (India) Private Limited, 2001
First Published 2001

Reprinted 2003, 2007
1SBN-13: 978 81 7371 398 9

ISBN-10: 81 7371 398 7
Typeset by
OSDATA, Hyderabad 500 029
Printed in India at
Orion Printers Private Limited
Hyderabad 500 004
Published by
Universities Press (India) Private Limited
3-5-747/1/A & 3-6-754/1 Himayatnagar
Hyderabad 500 029 (A.P.), India
Contents
/
Preface V
1. The Game of Four 4s 1

2. The Scale of 2 5
3. Some Arithmetical Titbits 15
4. On Large Numbers and Infinities 24
5. Noughts and Crosses 39
6. The Barber's Paradox 46
7. The Seventeen Rule-Breakers 55
8. Fallacies in Algebra and Geometry 66
9. Geometry with New Rules 77
10. The Seven Bridges of Konigsberg 93
11. The Mystical Mobius Strip 105
12. Four Colours Suffice 115
13. Coins, Dice, Matchsticks and All That 124
14. Mathematics and Warfare 135
15. The Impossible Ones 142
16. Limitations of Mathematics 153
17. Assorted Problems 159
18. Hints and Solutions 164
Bibliography 191
Index 192
To Morumama
(The late Professor M.S. Huzurbazar of the

Institute of Science, Mumbai)
who introduced us to the

fun, beauty and rigours of mathematics.
Preface
I V I a t h e m a t i c s was called 'The Queen of Sciences' by the famous

mathematician Carl Friederisch Gauss. Mathematics has also been
called the handmaiden of sciences. Some mathematicians would like
to claim that their subject is not a science at all, but is an art. And no
less a person than Bertrand Russell said, that in mathematics "We
do not know what we are talking about, and do not care whether
what we say about it is true".
These opinions demonstrate the wide spectrum of interests that
mathematics has come to occupy in our life. Ranging from the most
abstract concepts to the most practical applications that run our
technology today, mathematics has become indispensable. It needs to
be understood, appreciated, cultivated and assimilated in our lives.
Unfortunately, the subject is still viewed as 'tricky' or 'terrifying'
by our school and college students, many of whom would rather do
without it. This is not the fault of the subject but because of the
way it is presented and taught in the typical classroom. Rather than
appreciate the elegance and beauty of its structure and results, the
students see it as a set of rules and operations to be learnt by heart
if one is to do well in a maths test.
One of us (JVN) has happy childhood memories of how he was
presented with the "fun" side of this subject — through books on
mathematical recreations, through challenging puzzles and amusing
paradoxes. When exposed to this side of the subject, mathematics
ceases to be a terror-inducing subject. Rather, it is to be enjoyed
like a thrilling game or an absorbing concert or a beautiful painting.
Indeed, one needs to appreciate the aesthetic side of mathematics
to be able to enjoy it.
But side by side one should also see how its seemingly abstract
results turn out to be applicable to nature — and how this appli-
cability can be put to use, to enhance the standard of living. The
transition from abstract fundamentals to concrete uses is sometimes
unexpected, and all the more thrilling.
vi PREFACE
Having professionally enjoyed these various aspects of mathematics,

both of us felt the urge to share our enjoyment of this multifaceted
subject with students. We hope that the fun-aspect of this book
will guide them to understand and appreciate the fundamentals of
mathematics, so that it is no longer seen just as an incomprehensible
set of rules to be mugged up for the examination and forgotten
thereafter.
We have benefited greatly from problems, puzzles and paradoxes
collected from sources too numerous to mention. We have listed a
bibliography of some books relevant to what is described here.
It is a pleasure to thank Vyankatesh Samak for his help with the
preparation of the manuscript. Most pictures were drawn by one
of us (MJN) and some on the computer by R G Vishwakarma.
Mr M R Srinivas from Universities Press has also helped with
the artwork. We are also grateful to Madhu Reddy, the Director
of Universities Press, for his patience as we crossed our assigned
deadline by several months.
April, 2001 Mangala & Jayant Narlikar

Pune
I
The Game of Four 4s
1.1 T H E FOURTH RANKED KING
P e r h a p s nothing can give you as much fun and experience of

ordinary arithmetical operations as the game of four 4s.
One of us (JVN), came across it when he was in middle school.
It was introduced through the following story.
A king was proud of his vast empire, and thought that his was the
top-ranking kingdom in the world. He asked the scholars in his court
to verify it through a worldwide search. In those (pre-internet) days
of the past, people had to physically travel to obtain information.
And so the wise men travelled to the East, to the West, to the
North and the South. They returned in due course with the following
tidings:
"Your Majesty ! Yours is the fourth largest empire on the Earth."
The King was disappointed and also furious. He was about to
issue commands to behead these bearers of unwelcome tidings, when
his Vizier stepped in. (See Figure 1.1)
"Sire, it is indeed a happy circumstance that you are ranked
Number Four", he added. "For, if I may be permitted to say so, of
the ten primary digits 4 is the most versatile so far as arithmetical
operations are concerned."
"Explain yourself !" Snapped the king.
The King, whatever his other shortcomings were, was well versed
in elementary arithmetic. He would not be easily fobbed off.
So the Vizier showed him the following game, a game which
seemed very simple at first, but grew progressively more involved
and interesting.
See for yourself, how far you can progress in the game of four 4s.
2 FUN AND FUNDAMENTALS OF MATHEMATICS
1.2 RULES OF THE GAME
The rules of this game are simple. You are to use the number 4,
four times in the well established operations of arithmetic. And you
are required to construct integers 1,2,3,..., etc.
What are the permitted operations?
(I) You can of course use the four fundamental operations of addi-
tion, subtraction, multiplication and division. Thus, you can express
zero, one, two and three as:
4 4 4 4 4+4+4
X = 1
4 + 4 - 4 - 4 = 0, 4 4 ' I + I = 2
'
(II) Next you can use the square-root sign The fact that 4 is a
perfect square, helps of course. Thus, you can construct л/4 = 2, which
may prove useful. The square-root sign can cover big expressions
too, for example,
V4 + 4 +
i = 3
"
THE GAME OF FOUR 4 S 3
Likewise, one can raise expressions to powers, e.g., 4 4 = 256.
(III) The next important operation is of decimalization, both regular

and recurring. For example, the following expressions can be useful
in constructing some numbers:
4/.4 = 4/(4/10) = 10, 4/.4 = 4/[.44444.„] = 4/(4/9) = 9.
(IV) A very useful permitted operation is the 'factorial'. In general,
for any integer N, we write N\ = 1 x 2 x 3 . . . x TV. Therefore, '
4! = 1 x 2 x 3 x 4 = 24.
That is about all! In other words, using all these operations on the
number 4, used four and only four times, using no other number or
symbol, but using parentheses as required, how far can you go, starting
with 1 ?
1.3 EXAMPLES
Just to see how these operations work, let us try out a few examples.
1.3.1 T H E NUMBER 1 3
To make 13, we can proceed in many ways. For example,

4! 4 >/4
1 3 = - = + -, or 13 = 4 + 4 + ——.
л/4 4 .4
And of course, there are other ways. Some are more elegant than
others, but as long as an expression is mathematically correct, that
is all that matters. You should have no difficulty is reaching 100 or
going well past it. See, for example, a way of making a number like
87 next.
1.3.2 T H E NUMBER 8 7
This may appear difficult at first! But practice with smaller numbers
will show the way:
4
87 = 4 x 4! r.
.4
4 F U N AND FUNDAMENTALS OF MATHEMATICS
Of course, there will come a stage when you are unable to make
the next number with four 4s. The larger this number is the better
is your score.
1.4 IN THE E N D . . .
The Vizier got the King interested in this game to such an extent
that the latter forgot his dismay at being ranked Number 4. And of
course, instead of being punished, the Wise Men were rewarded for
their tidings. (See Figure 1.2)
Figure 1.2 The King is pleased...
1.5 SOME PROBLEMS FOR YOU!

I
Now that you are yourself hooked onto this game, try the following
problems:
1. Construct the following numbers using four 4s:

(i) 516 (ii) 641 (iii) 3624 (iv) 2187.
2. Instead of four 4s, try working with three 3s or five 5s to see
how much better the game was with four 4s.
3. What is the largest number that you can construct with four 4s?
2
The Scale of 2
2.1 T H E LAZY STUDENT
A rich man had a spoilt son, who would not bother to learn
even simple arithmetical operations. After several inducements and
attempts at persuasion, he agreed to learn addition and subtraction.
But when faced with multiplication and division he put his foot down.
While he was willing to add or subtract any numbers, he would only
go so far as multiplying or dividing a number by 2 only.
This of course restricted his progress in arithmetic. Until a clever
teacher came by.
"I will teach him multiplication by any two numbers, however
large", said he.
"But, Sir, he refuses to go beyond 2", complained the hapless
father.
Figure 2.1 "I agree to go as far as multiplying or dividing by 2, Sir!" said the
student.
"No matter! I will play the game by his own rules", the teacher
added with a smile. " He shall not divide or multiply by any number
greater than 2; but he must be prepared to add a lot of numbers."
The father agreed that this was not too much to ask, but was
doubtful as to how the teacher would manage to get very far with
these limitations. He introduced the boy to the teacher, who explained
the rules of the game to him. "I hope you agree to multiply and
divide by 2 as and when necessary" he concluded.
"That I will do, Sir." answered the student, convinced that what
the teacher would ask couldn't be much and that it really was not
going to help in multiplying arbitrary numbers.
"Good boy! Let us start by multiplying 45 by 78," said the teacher.
2.2 A N EXAMPLE
The normal method of multiplication of the above two numbers

would proceed as follows:
45
x 78
360
4- 315
3510
But of course, our student would have nothing to do with this

method. So the teacher played by his rules, involving multiplication
and division by 2 only. His method was as follows.
Write the one of the two numbers in the first column:
45
Now divide 45 by 2. You will get a dividend of 22 and a remainder
of 1. Write 22 with the remainder 1 in the bracket following it in
the first column underneath 45. Now write the second number, 78,
in the second column. Because there is a remainder of 1 after the
division of 45, write 78 in a third column.
22 (1) 78 78
Again, divide 22 by 2 and write the answer in the first column,
with the remainder(O) in the brackets following it. But multiply 78
T H E SCALE OF 2 7
by 2 in the second column and write the answer underneath it in the

same column. As the remainder after dividing 22 by 2 is zero, do
not transfer this figure to the third column. Continue this procedure,
dividing the figure in the first column by 2 and multiplying the figure
in the second column by 2. So far as writing this same figure in the
third column, follow this general rule: if there is a remainder of 1,
after dividing the number in the first column by 2, transfer the figure
of the second column into the third. But, if the remainder is zero,
then leave the third column blank. Thus, the next row will read as
follows:
11 (0) 156
Continue the division and multiplication and writing the numbers
in the various columns in successive rows, till the number in the first
column becomes zero. Then, add the figures in the third column to
get the final answer:
22 (1) 78 78
11 (0) 156
5 (1) 312 312
2(1) 624 624
1 (0) 1248
0(1) 2496 2496
Total of all figures in the third column 3510
Just to consolidate our understanding of this method, let us do

another sum: 83 x 113. The above steps are repeated below for these
numbers.
83 x 113
41 (1) 113 113
20 (1) 226 226
10 (0) 452
5 (0) 904
2(1) 1808 1808
1 (0) 3616
0(1) 7232 7232
Total of figures in the third column 9379
Now compare the answer with the usual method of multiplication,

which our lazy hero refused to follow.
Try this by yourself with other numbers. The method works!
2.3 BINARY ARITHMETIC
Why does the method work?

Let us look at the second table we have prepared above; in
particular, at the list of remainders in the first column. Write them
in a horizontal row, from top to bottom corresponding with right to
left:
1 0 1 0 0 11.
If this were a number written in our usual scale of 10, we would
read it as follows:
One million, ten thousand and eleven.
However, that is because in the scale of ten we attach a place value

which starts with one for the extreme right place and rises by a factor
of 10 for each place moved to the left. Thus, the above number in
the decimal system is equal to:
1 x 106 + 0 x 105 + 1 x 104 + 0 x 103 + 0 x 102 + 1 x 10 + 1,
where 10n stands for the nth power of 10, that is, the factors of 10
multiplied n-times. That is a huge number. But let us see what it
becomes if we change the rule of increase of place value from one
place to the next left to a new one: by a factor of 2 instead of 10.
We then have
1 x 26 + 0 x 2 5 + 1 x 24 + 0 x 2 3 + 0 x 2 2 + 1 x 2 + 1 = 83.
That is, the number 83 written in the scale of 2 would have the
sequence of units and zeros as above.
So if we wrote 83 in the above fashion, and then multiplied it by
113, we would get
113 x 83 = 113 x [1 x 26 + 0 x 2 5 + 1 x 24 + 0 x 2 3 + 0 x 2 2 + 1 x 2 + 1].
A simple step from here will convince you that the above tabular
method of addition of the various multiples of 113 is nothing but the
T H E SCALE OF 2 9
above sum. The trick of moving a multiple of 113 (by a power of 2)

from the second to the third column in the above table, whenever
there is a remainder of 1 in the first column is nothing but taking
note of the expression of the number 83 as 1010011 on a scale
of 2. In other words, the clever Guru was making the lazy pupil
perform this sum in this way instead of using the usual method of
multiplication.
2.3.1 T H E SIGNIFICANCE OF PLACE VALUE
Now, for a historical flashback...
In the Roman times, about two thousand years ago, the so-called
Roman numerals were in vogue in Europe. These involved writing
vertical bars for each of the first three numbers to begin with:
1 = 1,2 = II, 3 = III,
followed by V for 5. What about 4? They wrote it with I to the left

of V, while 6, 7, 8 were written as VI, VII and VIII, respectively.
That is, you write a smaller number to the left in order to subtract
it and to the right in order to add it. For 10 they used the symbol
X, so that i
9 = IX, 11 = XI, 12 = XII, 13 = XIII, 14 = XIV, 15 = XV,...
with two or more Xs in a row for numbers equal to or greater than 20.
They used L for 50, С for 100 (Century), M for 1000 (Millennium),
and so on. Thus, one would write 1937 as MCMXXXVII. You will
agree that this was a very cumbersome way of writing numbers, more
so for carrying out any manipulations with them.
It was against this background that one should look at the present
decimal system introduced by the Hindus and used by them even
before the Roman era. It is not known exactly when this system
came into operation in India. But the Hindu system was used by the
Arabs and popularized by them further so that it spread into Europe
and because of its elegance, gained popularity there, eventually
superseding the Roman system. The name Arab numerals' is a
misnomer in the sense that this number system originated in India!
A historical fact we should be proud of.
An Astronomical General Assembly Circa 767 A.D.?
Almost exactly twelve hundred years ago, Abdullah A1 Mansur, the

second Abbasid Caliph, celebrated the founding of his new capital,
Baghdad, by inaugurating an International Scientific Conference. To
this conference were invited Greek, Nestorian, Byzantine, Jewish as
well as Hindu scholars. From this conference, the first International
conference in an Arab country, dates the systematic renaissance of
science associated with Islam. The theme of the conference was
Observational Astronomy. A1 Mansur was interested in more accu-
rate astronomical tables than what was available then. H e wanted,
and he ordered at the conference, a better determination of the
circumference of the Earth. No one realised it then, but there was
read at the conference a paper destined to change the whole course
of mathematical thinking. This was a paper read by the Hindu as-
tronomer, Kankah, on Hindu numerals, then unknown to anyone
outside India.
[from a speech delivered in 1967, at Dhaka, erstwhile East Pakistan, by

the late Professor Abdus Salam]
See Figure 2.2 depicting the scene!
Figure 2.2 Kankah the astronomer from India presenting the Hindu numerals
at the International Conference in Baghdad.
T H E SCALE OF 2 11
Although we have been taught this system at school and use it in

daily life, it is worth reviewing it if only to consider and appreciate
the binary system that is more basic.
The decimal system may have evolved, probably because human
beings have 10 fingers (on two hands) to count with. So we need
10 symbols, 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, to begin with. We can then
go on to the next number by creating a next 'higher' place to the
left, with value ten. Thus, we write ten, the next number after 9, as
10. The number after that is eleven = l l . Note that the '1' on the
left in 11 has a higher value than the '1' on the right. Similarly, in
the number 101, the value of the leftmost 1 is hundred times that
of the rightmost 1. This is like currency. If we have one rupee, it
is equivalent to 100 paisas. Thus, the number 1, if a rupee, is 100
times as valuable as a paisa.
Although most countries now-a-days have decimal currency, there
were some which used other units. Thus, in the old rupee-anna-pice
system of the Indian currency 1 anna was equal to 12 pice, and 16
annas were equal to a rupee. There was some advantage in having
12 in that it has many divisors, 2, 3, 4, 6, which makes it easier to
do daily transactions.
Likewise, one may have a number-counting system which does not
use 10 as the basic unit. If we wish to use any other number, then
the smallest one is 2. Thus, we have only two digits, 0 and 1. Using
the system of 2, called the binary system, we can write any number,
just as we can write any number in our familiar decimal system. We
have already seen examples of this, viz.,
83 = 1010011, and, 45 = 101101.
The binary system has the advantage of being the simplest, with
the minimum number of digits; it has the disadvantage of requiring
a very large number of digits even for small numbers, as seen above.
Computers use the basic binary system as logically it is the simplest,
as we shall see shortly. For manipulations of large numbers, they
employ the scale of 8, which is a power of 2. (Thus, in the binary
system, 8 = 1000.) This octal system is therefore closely related to
the binary one and 8 being a large enough number close to 10,
the numbers generated in this system are not enormously large and
unwieldy. How will we write 45 in the octal system?
Remember, in the octal system we have only eight digits:
0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7
and any number has to be made up from these. Thus, the 8 of the
decimal system would be 10 in the octal system, 9 will be 11, and
so on. To write 45 in the octal system, divide it by 8. We get 5 as
quotient and 5 as remainder. That is,
45 = 8 x 5 + 5,
which means that in the octal system, 45 will be written as 55.
2.4 T H E LOGIC OF BINARY ARITHMETIC
The binary system of numbers, using j.ust 0 and 1, has a close

relationship with logic. Which is why computer technology finds it
so convenient. Suppose we have a switch which is either 'on' or 'off'.
When it is off, it does not allow any current to pass through it; when
on, it does let the current pass. Thus, the switch provides the yes/no
alternative to the current.
In simple logic, one makes statements that are either 'true' or
'false'. There is no third alternative. Hence, the logical status of any
statement may be described by a sequence of binary numbers. If
the statement is true, we say 'yes' and open the switch to pass the
current: denote this by the number 1. If the statement is false, we say
'no' to the current, close the switch and denote the statement by 0.
Thus, a number liko
1100011
means that reading from right to left, of the seven statements made,
the first two and the last two are true and the middle three are false.
The number, if we wish to express it in the decimal system will be
equal to
1 + 2 x 1 + 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 1 + 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 1 = 99.
The computer can display this by seven switches in appropriately

on/off modes.
EXERCISE Express this number (99) in the octal system.
In Chapter 6, we will come across a few puzzles of the true/false

kind. However, can we confidently say that about any statement
T H E SCALE OF 2 13
true/false is the only set of alternatives ? In that chapter, we will

also find that the situation may not always be so simple.
2.5 PROBLEMS FOR YOU TO SOLVE
1. Try the following card game on your friends. Prepare the following
five cards with numbers from 1 to 31 as shown in the Figure 2.3.
1 13 25 2 11 23
3 15 17 27 14 3 27
19 7 29 22 30 6 15
31 23 9 18 26 7
5 21 11 10 19 31
4 12 21 8 13 26
13 5 23 29 9 27 14
22 6 14 15 10 28
15 31 7 24 11 31
28 20 30 29 30 12 25
16 21 27
17 29 22
24 20 30
23 18 25
28 26 31 19
Figure 2.3 The Number-guessing Cards
Ask a friend to think of a number between 1 and 31 and then

inspect the cards to tell you which cards have the chosen number.
With a short pause for mental arithmetic, you then tell your
friend what the chosen number is. The trick is that you add the
top left number of each of the cards selected by your friend to
get the chosen number.
Can you tell how this game works?
2. Consider the number N = 2P~1 — 1 when p is a prime. [A prime

is a number that is divisible only by itself and by 1.] Say, we take
p = 7. Then we have N = 26 - 1 = 63, that is, a number that is
divisible by 7. If we take, p = 11, then N = 1023, which is divisible
by 11. The general rule is that the number N constructed as
above is always divisible by p if p is a prime. This is a special
case of Fermat's lesser theorem. Can you express it in the binary
notation? Apparently, the ancient Chinese had used the binary
notation and had inferred this result centuries ago.
3
Some Arithmetical Titbits
3.1 INTRODUCTION
I n this chapter, we will look at some interesting games and puzzles

involving numbers. They will not entail anything more complicated
than the four basic operations of arithmetic; addition, subtraction,
multiplication and division. To set the ball rolling, let us consider a
simple three-digit number, any number, whose first and last digits
are not the same. Let us take, say,
568.
Now reverse it to get

865.
Next, subtract the smaller of the two from the other:
865
-568
297.
Now reverse the answer and add to it. Thus,
792
+297
1089.
So, you end up with the number 1089. What is so special about it?
Nothing, except that, you always get this number as the final answer,
no matter how you started! Try again with another number, say, with
841. We have the following four steps as above:
(I) Reversal: 148
(II) Subtraction: 841 - 148 = 693
(III) Reversal: 396
(IV) Addition: 693 + 396 = 1089.
The answer of the subtraction made at the beginning must, how-
ever, be considered as a 'three digit number'. If the subtraction gives
the answer 99, it is to be considered as 099. This happens if the differ-
ence between the first and the third digits of the original number is 1.
You can use this result as a guessing game. You can ask your friend
to start with any three digit number and perform these operations,
in secret, without telling you. Then you impress him/her by telling
him/her the answer!
3.2 RACE TO 5 0
Here is a game that apparently involves addition only; but in reality,

also requires you to think of a strategy to win. The rules of the
game are as follows.
Two players A and B, play it, with each alternately adding any
number from 1 to 6, to a score, starting from zero. Whosoever adds
the number that brings the score to 50 wins.
The game could proceed, for example, as follows
Round No. A adds В adds Total

1 4 4
2 5 9
3 3 ' 12
4 6 18
5 5 23
6 2 25
7 6 31
8 4 35
9 1 36
10 3 39
11 6 45
12 5 50
S O M E ARITHMETICAL TITBITS 17
Thus, В wins.
The above is just an example. Now you should think of a strategy
so that you will necessarily win. Is it possible to ensure victory for
both A and B?
3.3 T H E JOSEPHUS PROBLEM
The Jewish historian Josephus was trapped in a cave with forty other
Jews, all of them trying to evade their Roman conquerors who had
captured their place Jotapat. The Jews decided to kill themselves
rather than be captured by the invaders. However, Josephus and
a friend of his did not wish to die. To avoid expressing dissent in
the midst of all present, he suggested a sequential process of killing
each member. He arranged all 41 in a circle and starting with a
given person, made the rule that every third man was to be killed.
Of course, in this way, the circle would get progressively shorter, till
only one person would be left, who was to commit suicide. Josephus
placed himself and his friend in such positions with respect to the
starting one that they were the last two left and thus escaped. The
question is, where were they placed initially? (See Figure 3.1)
Figure 3.1 Jews arranged in a sequence 1, 2,... along a circle.
To solve this problem, number all the positions and progressively

eliminate every third one till only two are left. The answer is that
the positions 16 and 31 are the last to go. Thus, Josephus and his
friend occupied these positions.
We can check this as follows
The original positions are:
1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20,21,22,23,24,25,26,27,
28,29,30,31,32,33,34,35,36,37,38,39,40,41.
After the last position 41, follows the position 1 in the circle, of
course. Now, let us go around the circle once, removing every third
number along the way:
1,2,4,5,7,8,10,11,13,14,16,17,19,20,22,23,25,26,28,29,31,32,34,35,37,
38,40,41.
Continuing to go around the circle the second time, after 40 and 41,
the third number is 1, which has to go. So after the second round
we are left with:
2,4,7,8,11,13,16,17,20,22,25,26,29,31,34,35,38,40
And so we continue going 'round and round' and successively re-

ducing the size of the circle:
2,4,8,11,16,17,22,25,29,31,35,38
2,4,11,16,22,25,31,35
2,4,16,22,31,35
4,16,31,35
16,31.
So, this is the strategy that helped Josephus to plan his own and his
friend's survival!
3.4 CYCLIC NUMBERS
Consider the number 2387. We can construct new numbers from the
same digits by moving them cyclically:
3872, 8723 and 7238.
In general, we can construct n cyclic numbers from a number con-

taining n digits:
N\ = aia2a^...an-ian.
N2 = a2a3...an-ianai.
N3 = a 3 . . . a „ _ i a n a i a 2 .
N3 = anaia2a3...an^i.
What is the sum of all the cyclic numbers of such a set JV2,..., A^n]?
It is easy to compute this from the above description. When we add
all the numbers above, we find that in each vertical column the sum
simply is
S = ai + a2 + аз + ... + an-i + an,
so that if we factor it out, the remaining factor will be 111...11,
with the number repeated n times. In our example chosen above,
we should get
2387 + 3872 + 8723 + 7238 = (2 + 3 + 8 + 7) x 1111 = 20 x 1111 = 22220.
You can verify that this is indeed true.

There are several puzzles of the following kind concerning cyclic
numbers.
PROBLEM
A number ends in digit 2. If we move this 2 from the last place to

the first place, the new number is twice the old one. What is the
smallest such number?
To solve this problem, suppose the number is N. Consider what
happens when we remove the digit 2 from the end. First, if we had
replaced it by zero, the number would have reduced by 2, that is,
it would have become simply TV - 2. However, our operation simply
removes the 2, and we do not have the zero at the end, which means
we divide this new number by 10. So it becomes (N - 2)/10. [For
example, if we had, N = 52, then removing 2 from the end leaves
us 5, which is simply (52 — 2)/10.]
However, we have to replace the digit 2 at the front end of the

number. If N had n digits altogether, then through this operation
the place value of 2 will increase from 1 to lO" - 1 . So this adds to
the new number the value 2 x 10 n _ 1 . Since the resulting number is
given to be twice the old number, we have the following equation:
TV — 2
+ 2 x 1 0 n - 1 = 2N,
which gives the relation
2 x (10 n - 1) = 197V.
What is the least value of n by which this equation is satisfied?

Obviously, we need a value for which 19 is a divisor of (10 n — 1).
Thus, we have to try the sequence of numbers
9,99,999,9999,...
to find the smallest one that is a multiple of 19. The answer is

n = 18, that is, we have 18 nines in a row. And if we carry out the
division and solve the above equation for this value of n, we get the
answer
N = 105263157894736842.
A large number indeed! But do check that moving the last 2 to the
front position doubles this number.
1. A king conquered the whole Earth. To celebrate the event, he

ordered a silk belt to be made encircling the Earth along the
equator. The tailor appointed for this job took the equatorial
measurement to be 40,000 km. However, when he made the belt
it was 15 m longer than the exact length. So the belt was loose
fitting with a constant gap between it and the equator. How wide
would that gap be — (i) just enough for a thin paper to slide
through? or (ii) just enough for a big melon to slide through? or
(iii) tall enough to permit a human being to stand underneath
the belt? Remember that the error made by the tailor was less
than 1 part in a million. (See Figure 3.2)
Figure 3.2 A loose belt around the Earth!
2. You are offered the choice of two jobs. Job 1 gives you an annual
stipend of Rs 1,00,000 and an annual increment of Rs 20,000. Job
2 gives you a six-monthly stipend of Rs 50,000 and a six-monthly
increment of Rs 5,000. From the monetary point of view, which
job will you choose as being more lucrative?
3. Three volumes of World History, each 5 cm thick, are kept in

a library. The volumes are old and neglected, having lost their
hard covers a long time ago. A bookworm (not a human being
fond of reading books, but a real worm!) decides to sample the
pages. The worm can penetrate about 1 cm thickness of a book
in a week. How long will it take to go from the first page of
volume I to the last page of volume III?
4. Can you fill out the X marks by writing a digit in each place so
that division problem makes sense?
X.XX) X.X (X.XXX

XXX
xxxx
xxxx
0 000
5. A typical telegram from a college student to her father:
S E N D
M O R E
M O N E Y
However, here it is arranged like the addition of two numbers.

You have to assign a digit to each letter, given that each letter
stands for only one digit and no digit has two or more, letters
representing it. The result should look like a sum.
6. A salesman knocked at the door of a house. The housewife

gave him a patient hearing and said: "I will buy your product
if you answer my question. I have three daughters whose ages
add up to 13. The product of their ages is equal to the number
of this house. Can you tell me their ages?" The salesman, a
maths graduate, looked at the house number and did some
quick calculation. He then shook his head and said, "Madam,
I am sorry, the information supplied by you is incomplete".
The housewife thought for a while and smiled. "I will give you
further information: my eldest daughter takes piano lessons".
Whereupon, the salesman instantly gave the correct answer. Can
you find it? And, what was the house number?
7. Three friends went to a restaurant to celebrate the end of their

college examinations. They had a sumptuous meal and the bill
came to Rs 250/-. Each produced a hundred rupee note and so
the payment made was Rs 300/-. The waiter took it to the cashier
and got five notes of Rs 10/- each in return. When he brought
the change back the diners each took back one ten rupee note,
leaving a tip of Rs 20/- for the waiter. So far so good. (See
Figure 3.3)
Figure 3.3 Time to pay the bill... but where is the missing note?
However, on their way back one of them said: "Hey! There is

some gol-mal (mix-up) somewhere! We each paid Rs 100/- and
got Rs 10/- back. So that makes Rs 90/- per person. The three of
us therefore spent Rs 270/-. And in addition we gave Rs 20/- to
the waiter. That makes a total of Rs 290/-. Where is the missing
note of Rs 10?" Well, none of them liked maths and so could not
figure out the answer. They suspected the waiter of pocketing it.
Can you help them?
ш
On Large Numbers
and Infinities
O n c e upon a time, a clever and well-read scholar arrived at the

court of a king. Amongst his various accomplishments, the visitor
was an excellent chess player and before long he defeated the best
of them in the King's court. Very pleased, the King asked the scholar
what reward he wished to receive from the royal hands. After some
thought, the scholar said:
"Sir, give me grains of rice which will be adequate to fill up a

chessboard in the following fashion. Number the squares on the
board in any fashion, from 1 to 64. Place one grain of rice on the
board's first square, two on square number 2, double that, i.e., 4 on
square number 3, double that, i.e., 8 on square number 4 and so on
...." [see Figure 4.1]
Figure 4.1 Chessboard squares filled with rice in an increasing sequence.

O N LARGE NUMBERS AND INFINITIES 25
"But that is trivial!" said the king. "It will be hardly of any value."
But the clever visitor insisted that he would only have that reward.
The King was about to agree, when in rushed his Prime Minister.
"Sir! Don't agree to that reward. The clever fellow will make you
bankrupt".
The King did not at first believe him, till the PM took him to a
blackboard and explained the details.
Do you agree with the Prime Minister? And why ?
4.1 GEOMETRIC PROGRESSION
To see the PM's point let us look at the sequence of grains on the
board.
Square no. 1 2 3 4 .... n

No. of grains 1 2 4 8 .... 2 " - 1 ....
That is, each time the rise is by factor 2. Also, note that
1 + 2 = 3 = 4-1,
1 + 2+ 4 = 7= 8-1,
1 + 2 + . . . + 2 n _ 1 = 2n - 1
Thus, the number of grains in the (n + l ) t h square is one more than
the total number of grains on all the preceding squares. So how
many grains of rice will be needed altogether?
The answer is 2 6 4
— 1. How large is this number? If you really
wish to 8work
8
it out,
8
remember that
264 = (2 ) = (256) = 256 x 256 x 256 x 256 x 256 x 256 x 256 x 256.
The number will be more than 1019, i.e., the number obtained by
placing 19 zeros after 1.
Now, let us do another calculation. Suppose, when heaped in a
pile, one rice grain occupies at least a space of 2 mm x 1 mm x
1 mm, that is a volume of 2 mm 3 . Let us assume that this is an
overestimate and reduce it to half the value, i.e., to 1 mm 3 . So 1019
rice grains will occupy 10 19 mm 3 . Taking 106 mm in a kilometre, this
space will be 10 km x 1 km x 1 km. The godown needed to store
this rice would have to be huge! And ours is a very conservative

estimate.
Or we can do this calculation another way. Take 10 g of rice
and count the number of rice grains in it. The number will be
approximately 600, depending more exactly on the quality of the rice.
Now do the calculation again: if 10 g of rice contain 600 rice grains,
how much will 1019 grains weigh? The answer will be approximately
1.66 x 1011 tons, far exceeding the annual rice production of the
entire world.
This story has a moral, that goes beyond the practical — that one
should be careful about making commitments and only make those
we are able to honour. The real moral that we wish to highlight
here, however, is the rapid rise in the numbers of a geometric series.
4.2 FOLDING A MUSLIN HANDKERCHIEF
The Dhaka muslin is famous for its very fine weave. Suppose you
have a muslin napkin which you fold into half 32 times in succession.
How thick will it become? [see Figure 4.2]
Of course, this is a mathematical problem, so ignore the practical

difficulty that you will encounter when the napkin has been folded
4-5 times; its area becomes very small and its thickness increases
too much for subsequent folding. Still, assume that you can carry on
doubling the thickness each time you fold the piece. Assume that
the thickness of the unfolded napkin is a tenth of a millimetre. What
will its ultimate thickness be?
You will be surprised with the answer (see the solution later in
this chapter if you haven't worked it out before that).
4.3 COMPOUND INTEREST
If you invest a capital sum in a bank at, say, 10% interest per annum,
after one year you will get 1.1 times your capital back. What if the
interest is compounded annually and you collect your capital and
interest after five years? In a compound interest scheme, the interest
is not paid to you annually but added to the capital for later times.
Thus, if you invested Rs 1,000, then after one year you should get
Rs 1,100. However, you will not have access to the interest amount
after one year. It is reinvested along with the capital for later times,
i.e., for the remaining four years. Thus, after 2 years its notional
value will be Rs 1,210; after three years Rs 1,331; and so on. After
five years, the total amount would be
Rs 1,000 x ( l . l ) 5 = Rs 1,610.51. (4.1)
Notice that if you had collected simple interest annually, you would
have received Rs. 1,500. Thus, the compound interest gives you more
money at the end, provided you are prepared to wait for the accu-
mulated interest for the duration of the investment.
But the gap between the simple and compound interests widens
dramatically as time proceeds. Suppose you leave your capital un-
touched for 50 years growing with compound interest. At the end of
the 50-year period you (or your successors!) will get
Rs 1,000 x (l.l) 5 0 = Rs 117,400(approx.) (4.2)
At simple interest, you would have had only Rs. 6,000.

Just how rapidly this compounding of interest increases your
capital, can be seen by this example. Suppose, you let your Rs. 1,000
remain with the bank at the above compound interest rate for 500
years! Assuming that the bank is solvent, the currency is stable and
your lineage continues unbroken, your successor stands to collect a
staggering amount, far exceeding the world economy:
Rs 1,000 x (l.l) 5 0 0 = Rs 5 x 10 23 (approx.) (4.3)
That is, five hundred thousand billion billion rupees.

Of course, what we are seeing here is the geometric progression
like that which raised the number of rice grains to such fantastic
values. But now let us do another calculation.
Suppose the interest is 10% but compounded every six months.
How much will you get after one year? Remember, after the first
six months you get Rs 1000 x 1.05 = Rs 1,050. Then, after another
six months the amount in the kitty rises to
Rs 1,050 x 1.05 = Rs 1,102.50. (4.4)
If the interest had been compounded annually you would have got
Rs 1,100 only. Thus, you gain by having the same rate of interest
compounded more frequently.
Now you can easily check that if you had instead used a quarterly
compounding scheme, then at the end of the year you would have
collected even more, Rs 1,103.81 approximately.
This will make you greedy. Why not compound more and more
frequently? Suppose you divide the year in n parts where n is a
large number. The interest for each one of the n parts will then be
at the rate of 10/n percent. So at the end of the year, you will get
the sum
/ 10 \ n ( O.lV
Sn = Rs 1,000 x 1 x — — = Rs 1,000 x I 1 + — . (4.5)
V lOOn J \ n J
Of course, as you expected when suggesting this scheme, the ultimate

amount increases as n increases. So you might think that if you
let n go onto infinity, you may get an infinitely large sum. Without
waiting for 500 years, you may expect to be a millionaire (or a
multibillionaire!) after just one year by letting the interest compound
continuously.
Alas, no! This get-rich-quick scheme does not work. Figure 4.3
shows how Sn increases as n increases. As n becomes very large, Sn
tends to level off. The answer for n going to infinity is
Soo = Rs 1,105.17. (4.6)

1105.0
1104.8
Г
1104.6
1104.4
1104.2
1104.0
1 100 500 1000

n
Figure 4.3 Sn plotted for different values of n. As n rises, Sn converges to
a fixed finite value.
Not much more than that given by (4.4).

Indeed, mathematicians have shown that for any real number x
the limit
5ТС(®) = lim ( l + (4.7)

n—>ос \ nJ
is finite and is denoted by a special function called the exponential

function. We write
5oo(a?) = exp(x) = ex (4.8)
where e is a fundamental number in mathematics, just like n. Like

я-, e is also an irrational number, but it can be evaluated to as many
decimal places as we like. Thus,
e = 2.718281828... (4.9)
So in (4.6) we have S00 = Rs 1,000 x exp(O.l).

The exponential grows rapidly as x increases through positive
values and decreases rapidly towards zero as x becomes large and
negative. An example of a growing exponential is a population which
has a steady annual growth rate. Figure 4.4 illustrates how an annual
growth rate of 2% can rapidly increase the population of a country.
Although 2% is small, its long-term effect is devastating for a country
with limited resources. India, beware!
Figure 4.4 The growth of population at 2% rate over a few centuries. The
horizontal axis measures years and the vertical axis the population size per unit
value in the beginning.
4.4 MAGNITUDES OF FINITE NUMBERS AND INFINITIES
As the numbers grow, we may naively think that their limit is that
distant unattainable goal called infinity. Like zero, infinity is an
interesting idea, and to the layperson, infinity is bigger than any
number one can imagine; but in fact infinity is not a number in the
ordinary sense. This realization came to mathematicians in the 19th
century, thanks largely to the work of Georg Cantor (1845-1918), a
Russian mathematician. To appreciate Cantor's work, let us look at
a typical family episode.
Asha and Amit were fighting over some toffees. Mother had seven
of them. Asha, who was seven years old, asked Amit, "How may
toffees do you want? Two or three?" "I want three", demanded Amit
who was three years old. Asha winked at mother and said "Okay,
give him three. I shall have what remains!" Amit could not subtract
three from seven, but the readiness with which Asha accepted made
him suspicious. He insisted on counting Asha's toffees and saw that
she was getting more. Finally, mother had to eat one toffee herself
and give them three each.
When we have sets containing a finite number of objects it is
easy to compare them and decide which one is bigger. For example,
suppose there are some white and some black balls in a basket.
We have to quickly find out which are more in number. We need
not know exactly how many black or white balls are there. The
quickest way is to pair off white and black balls, and find out which
colour gets exhausted and which remains. We may remove (3 black, 3
white), (2 black, 2 white) sets whenever possible, to make it quicker.
This procedure, known as one-to-one correspondence, will also save
us some time.
If we want to find out the exact number of objects that a finite
set contains, we enumerate them, one by one. That is, we establish
a one-to-one correspondence between the objects of the set and a
finite set of positive integers (1,2,3,...,M). Then we say that the given
set has M elements. When comparing the magnitudes of infinite
sets, Cantor used precisely the same principle. How can we compare
infinite sets for magnitude? When can we say that one set is bigger
than the other? During 1871-84, Cantor built up a theory which
started with the very simplest concepts but developed into a profound
subject.
Cantor introduced the notion of cardinal numbers associated with
sets of objects. The cardinal numbers of two equivalent sets are the
same, equivalent sets being those whose members can be put in a
one-to-one correspondence. Thus, for a finite set we can count its
members in the above fashion, and the integer resulting from the
count is its cardinal number.
If we now consider the set N of all integers 1,2,3,..., we have an
infinite set. What is its cardinal number? Cantor denoted it by "aleph
null" and the symbol Thus any infinite set whose members can
be enumerated, i.e., put in a one-to-one correspondence with integers
1,2,3..., has the cardinal number Ho-
Consider for example, the set E of all positive even integers
2,4,6,8,... Compare this set with the set N of all positive integers
1,2,3,.... Which one is bigger? One is tempted to say that N is bigger
than E, because it includes all members of E as well as having some
more (the odd integers). Of course, we cannot count elements or
members of either set in the ordinary way, as they are infinite. But
we can establish a one-to-one relation, namely
N 1 2 3 4 5 ...n...
Ri- I I I I I
E 2 4 6 8 10 ...2n...
and deduce that both the sets are equal in magnitude, or the infinities
of both are of the same order.
Note that in the correspondence, as above, it is necessary to
associate each element of N with a unique element of E and vice
versa. No element in either set should be left out.
The correspondence
N 1 2 3 4 5 6 ...
R2 • I I I
E 2 4 6 ...
may suggest that N is larger than E, and the correspondence
TV 1 2 3 ...
Дз : I I I
E 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 ...
may suggest that E is larger than N. But neither of these corre-

spondences is conclusive. R2 implies that E is not bigger than N
and i? 3 implies that N is not bigger than E. There is a theorem by
Schroder-Bernstein which states that in such a situation both N and
E have the same magnitude or cardinal number, or cardinality and
we can actually define a one-to-one correspondence. We sometimes
denote the cardinality of a set S by | S |.
One surprising fact is that the set Q+ of all positive rational
numbers has the same cardinality as N. As we can easily see, N
is a proper subset of Q+ and one may think that N is smaller
in cardinality. There are many ways of establishing a one-to-one
correspondence between the two sets.
Any rational number in its reduced form can be written as n/d,
n and d being integers without any common factor except 1. We
consider first the rationale n/d with n 4- d = 2, namely 1/1. Then,
we take rationals n/d with n + d = 3 and among them consider the
rationals with smaller n before those with larger n. Thus, 1/2 comes
before 2/1. Then consider rationals with n + d = 4. They are (1/3,
2/2, 3/1). Now 2/2 is not the reduced form (and 2/2 = 1/1 is already
counted) so the next set is (1/3, 3/1). The next set will be (1/4, 2/3,
3/2, 4/1). Thus, all positive rational numbers are grouped in this way
and we establish the one to one correspondence as
N 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10...
1/1 1/2 2/1 1/3 3/1 1/4 2/3 3/2 4/1 1/5 ...
It can be verified that each rational number is paired off with an

integer and that no number is left out.
We give another one-to-one correspondence between N and Q+ as
follows. Any positive integer n is uniquely written as n = 2a'1(2b-l),
where a and b are positive integers, n a/6 is seen to be a one-
to-one correspondence between N and pairs of positive integers (a,
b). As Q+ is contained in this set, we get | Q+ |<| N |; whereas,
the natural inclusion shows | N |<| Q+ |. Now an application of the
Schroder-Bernstein theorem gives the result that N and Q+ have
the same cardinality.
Of course, all infinite sets do not have the same cardinality. It
is not difficult to prove that the set of all real numbers between 0
and 1 have a cardinality bigger than that of N. First, we must note
that the smallest infinity is that of N. Because, any infinite set must
contain a set equivalent to N. Now, if the set С of all real numbers
between 0 and 1 has a one-to-one correspondence with N, let the
numbers in С be arranged as
C: A1 A2 A3 ...
N: 1 2 3 ...
Each real number has a decimal expansion. For example, 1/2 =

.5000..., 1/8 = .12500..., 7Г = 3.1415....
Let each Ak = .a\aka§... Here, each af is one of 0,1,2,...,9. Now,
construct another real number В = .bib 2 b 3 ... such that b\ ф a} and
bi ф 9, 62 ф a\ and b2 ф 9, . . . br Ф arT and br Ф 9. Then В = .bib2b3 . . .
is also in С but В differs from each Ak at the kth decimal place.
Thus, В is not counted in A1, A2,.... This shows that С cannot have
a one to one correspondence with N or, in other words, С is not
enumerable.
The cardinal number с of the set С defined as above was called
the "power of the continum" by Cantor. He denoted this by and
called it "aleph one". Is it possible to find an infinite set P which
has a magnitude bigger than and smaller than с which is the
cardinality of С described above? The answer to this question is not
yet known.
More importantly, Cantor showed that a sequence of infinite sets
can be constructed with cardinal numbers in an "aleph" sequence,
with each succeeding infinity being 'larger' than the preceding one.
This sequence
has Ki coming after H0. The question referred to above, is whether

the next aleph after aleph null is equal to c. Likewise, the cardinal
number of the set of all continuous curves is an infinity higher than
c. Where does it stand in the sequence? This question also is still
unsolved. (See Figure 4.5)
Figure 4.5 Only six of the infinity of curves in a given area are shown above!
This infinity is larger than the infinity of real numbers.
Anyway, to the lay person's mind infinity may sound like some
unique 'goal' lying far away beyond our reach. To the mathematician
even infinities have hierarchies of their own!
1. One example of very large numbers is found in the story of

Brahma's Tower supposed to be set in a temple in the holy city
of Varanasi. The tower consists of 64 discs of gold of decreasing
sizes with hole in the middle of each disc. To begin with there was
a tower built by placing discs in descending order of size, one on
top of another around a peg. There are two other similar pegs
which were empty to begin with. The priests have to transfer the
tower from one peg to another, making sure that each time the
disc on top is transferred on to another disc (around another peg)
larger in size, until the whole tower is moved to a neighbouring
peg. Estimate the time taken to do this job, assuming that one
move takes one second. A great deal hinges on your solution;
for once the job is completed it will be the end of the universe,
till Brahma creates another! (See Figure 4.6)
Figure 4.6 The Tower of Brahma in the midst of construction!
2. The world population crossed the 6 billion mark in 1999. Suppose

it continues to grow at an annual rate of 2% rate. When will it
reach such a figure that each human being has only 1 m 2 to exist
on? The land area of the Earth may be taken as 150 million
Km 2 . (See Figure 4.7)
Figure 4.7 Standing room only! When will the Earth become so crowded?
3. Show that the the infinity of points on the unit interval, on a

straight line, is of the same magnitude as the infinity of points
in a unit square.
4. The story of the hare and the tortoise is well known. The hare
lost because he took a long nap on the way. But here is an
argument that shows that even if the hare were running fast he
could not overtake the tortoise, provided the tortoise was ahead
to begin with. See Figure 4.8. Suppose the hare was at point A
and the tortoise was at point В ahead of A on the race-track.
By the time the hare reached B, the tortoise will have moved
to С ahead of B. Again when the hare reaches C, the tortoise
will have moved to D ahead of C. And so on, ad infinitum. So
the tortoise will always be ahead of the hare! What is the fallacy
in the argument? This is one of the paradoxes of the Greek
philosopher Zeno relating to infinity.
в с
с D
Figure 4.8 Will the hare always be behind the tortoise? (Figure not drawn
to scale.)
5. Here is another of Zeno's paradoxes. See Figure 4.9. A runner

wishes to cover a distance of 1 km. Zeno uses the following
argument to show that (s)he will never succeed if, at each stage,
(s)he aims at covering half the remaining distance. For, to do so
first (s)he will have to cover half the distance. Having done so,
(s)he next has to cover half the remaining distance. That leaves
1/4 km, of which (s)he next covers half the distance. If (s)he
adopts the strategy of covering half the remaining distance each
time, (s)he has an infinity of operations lying ahead of him/her,
with the destination always lying just that little bit ahead. What
is wrong with this reasoning?
Figure 4.9 Will the runner always be short of reaching his/her target?
Noughts and Crosses
W e are all familiar with the simple 'noughts vs crosses' game in

which a square divided into 9 equal parts (3 x 3) is filled in with
noughts (0) and crosses (x) by two opposing players. The one who
first gets three of his symbols in sequence in a row or a column
or a diagonal, wins. Figure 5.1 shows an example where one player
(using 0) wins while in Figure 5.2 there is no winner.
X 0 X
0 0 X
X 0
Figure 5.1 In this game the player with three noughts (0) in the middle
column has won.
Experimenting with the various possibilities will show that the

central square is very important as it controls four out of the eight
possible winning combinations, and so the player who starts there
has a distinct advantage. Nevertheless, such games more often than
not end inconclusively in a draw.
There are, however, variations of this "three-in-a-row" theme
which are more interesting to play if you have the time and patience
. . . and also a sense of perspective which we will shortly clarify. We
will refer to a set of three of a kind in a row as a 'triplet'.
NOUGHTS AND CROSSES 39
X 0 X
0 0 X
X X 0
Figure 5.2 This game has ended in a draw.
5.1 A GAME IN THREE DIMENSIONS
Let us move up to three dimensions and talk of cubes instead of

squares. Figure 5.3 shows a cube divided into 3 x 3 x 3 = 27 tiny
cubes, just as in Figures 5.1 and 5.2 we had a square divided into
nine tiny squares. How many triplet cubes-in-a-row do we have?
In Figure 5.3, we have used rectangular coordinate axes OX,OY
and OZ to identify the directions of the edges of the main cube.
Taking the slices parallel to the OXY plane, we have three sets of nine
tiny cubes. Each set viewed from a perpendicular direction presents
the aspect of a square as in Figures 5.1 and 5.2, with eight sets of 3
tiny cubes in a row. So in three slices we have 3 x 8 = 24 such sets.
Now look at the slices parallel to the OYZ plane. Here too you
will have 24 sets of 3 triplet cubes. But not all of them are new.
Some were already included in the slices parallel to the OXY plane.
These are the sets parallel to the direction OY. It is easy to see that
there are nine of them. Hence, we have only 24 - 9 = 15 new ones
to add, thus making the total of 24 + 15 = 39. Next, we add the
new sets from the slices parallel to the OXZ plane. Of the 24 sets in
these slices, 9 are common with the slices parallel to the OXY plane
and 9 parallel to the OYZ plane. So we have only 24 - 9 - 9 = 6
new ones to add, thus bringing the total to 39 + 6 = 45.
We are not done yet! There are triplets that lie along the diagonals
of the cube. Since there are four such diagonals, the total finally
adds up to 45 + 4 = 49 triplets.
Figure 5.3 Noughts and crosses in a 3x3x3 cube
That is, in the 3-D cube we have altogether 49 linear triplets of tiny
cubes.
Later we will find another way of computing this number. But
right now, we will think of a 'noughts and crosses' game within this
cube. Thus, the two opponents will play alternately to fill up the
tiny cubes with their respective signs (0 or x ). But the goal is not
to complete a 3-in-a-row first. Rather, the goal is to go on filling
up the tiny cubes till the end and then count the linear triplets of
noughts or crosses. The one who scores the most wins.
Now, you may ask how we can actually play a game like this in
a solid cube. The answer is illustrated in Figure 5.4 where three
large squares are drawn side by side, each one subdivided into 9 tiny
squares as in Figures 5.1 and 5.2. We may regard them as the three
slices of the cube, say, those parallel to the OXY plane. Imagine
that these three slices, labelled 1,2,3 in Figure 5.4, are one above
the other in the direction OZ, as shown in Figure 5.3.
Now, apart from the linear triplets in each of the slices, there are
others like those shown in Figure 5.4 and 5.3 which cut across the
slices. The examples of Figure 5.4 correspond to those of Figure
5.3 where the linear structure of such triplets are illustrated. With a
little practice in perspective, one can do away with Figure 5.3 and
use Figure 5.4 only to decide which triplets are linear.
0 0 0 X
1 2 з
Figure 5.4 Three slices of the cube laid side by side. The three noughts and
the three crosses are both in separate rows.
Try playing this game and see what strategies can help improve
your score! Note that when two players play, their combined score
will be much less than the number 49 derived above. Can you see
the reason why?
5.2 N o w TRY THE GAME IN FOUR DIMESNIONS ...
After you have acquired sufficient practice playing the game in 3D,
why not try playing it in four dimensions? Now, instead of a cube,
you are dealing with a hypercube! Just as a cube is bounded by
squares (on six sides), a hypercube is bounded by cubes on eight
sides. And whereas a cube is divided into 27 tiny cubes, here the
hypercube is to be divided into 3 x 3 x 3 x 3 = 81 tiny hypercubes.
Just how does one draw such a hypercube on a plain piece of
paper? Figure 5.5 illustrates the answer : it has 9 large squares
arranged in a 3 x 3 (three columns, three rows) fashion and each
square subdivided into 3 x 3 = 9 tiny cells. Each tiny square-cell
of Figure 5.5 represents one tiny hypercube. Note that there are
altogether 9 x 9 = 81 of them, as expected.
0 X X X
Figure 5.5 Sections of a hypercube laid side by side and top to bottom. Two
triplets of noughts and crossess are shown.
Now consider the three columns of large squares, each representing

a cube. We have here three cubes side by side. These three cubes
are three 'slices' of the hypercube, just as we had three plane slices
of a cube earlier. Of course, just as we could slice the cube in three
different ways, so also can we slice the hypercube in four different
ways. Can you identify the other ways of slicing from Figure 5.5?
Again, there are many ways of forming linear triplets of noughts
and crosses. A couple of them are shown in Figure 5.5. How many
such triplets exist? Rather than use an extension of our earlier method
of counting such triplets (which would indeed be very confusing in
four dimensions), we will use another, more elegant, method which
works in all dimensions. We will illustrate it with the help of the

specific example in 3D.
For the cube, we can identify a typical tiny cubical cell with three
coordinates (X, Y, Z). Taking the central cell as the origin with
coordinates (0,0,0), we may take the general values of X, Y, Z to be
any of +1, or 0, or - 1 . Figure 5.6 illustrates this coordinate system
with the coordinates for a few tiny cells specified. For example,
(1,1,1) denotes a tiny cell at one of the vertices of the cube.
Figure 5.6 In the above coordinate system, the cell at the centre of the cube
has the coordinates (0,0,0). A few other cells are marked with their coordinates.
Now in order that the three cells with coordinates ( X i , Y i , Z i ) ,

(X 2 , У2, Z2) and (X 3 , У3, Z 3 ) form a linearly-aligned triplet, we require
the middle-point coordinates to be averages of the end-point ones.
That is,
y + v Vi+Уз 7 Z1 + Z3
X2 = z , У2 = z , Аз = • (5.1)
Given that Xs, Ys and Zs can have only three sets of values, we
have limited possibilities of satisfying (5.1). One possibility is that
Xx — X2 = X3, Yi = Y2 = Y3, Zx = Z2 = Z3, with these values being
+ 1, 0 or - 1 . The other possibility is Xi = +1, X 2 = 0, X3 = - 1
or X\ = —1, X2 = 0, X3 = +1, and similarly for the Ys and Zs.
Since the X,Y,Z coordinates can have independent values, for each
coordinate direction we have five possibilities. They are
Xi = X2 = X3 = + 1 or 0 or - 1,
Xx = +1, X 2 = 0, X 3 = - 1 ,
Xi = - 1 , X 2 = 0, X 3 = +1. (5.2)
3
Since there are three coordinates in 3D, we have 5 possibilities.
However, we have to remove those cases where the three points of
a triplet coincide. That is, in the above system of coordinates we
cannot have, for example,
Xx = X2 = X 3 = +1,У Х = У2 = У3 = +1, Zx = Z 2 = Z 3 = +1. (5.3)

Since the Xs can all have any of the three values, 1,0,-1 and
likewise for the F s and Zs, there are altogether 3 x 3 x 3 = З 3 such
'degenerate' cases (which of course correspond to the 27 tiny cubes
into which the cube was divided.) So it seems that the number of
non-trivial triplets is 5 3 - З 3 .
But this answer is still not quite right! This is because we have
counted each linear triplet twice. For example, the triplet with three
points having the coordinates (1,1,1), (1,0,0) and ( 1 , - 1 , - 1 ) is
the same as the triplet with three points having the coordinates
( 1 , - 1 , - 1 ) , (1,0,0), (1,1,1). In short, we have here the same triplet
with the end points exchanged. So the correct answer should be
7 У 3 = Л ( 5 3 - З 3 ) = 49. (5.4)
Here, the number N3 denotes the number of triplets indextriplets

in three dimensions. Had we carried out the calculation for a square
(i.e. in two dimensions), our answer would have been
7V2 = ^(5 2 - 3 2 ) = 8. (5.5)
Notice that both (5.4) and (5.5) agree with our earlier answers based
on direct counting. Thus, the answer for our 4D hypercube would be
7V4 = I ( 5 4 - 3 4 ) = 272. (5.6)

And if you can imagine a general hypercube in n dimensions, the

number would be
Nn = \{bn-T). (5.7)
5.3 CONCLUSION
As you can see, we have come a long way from our traditional
noughts and crosses game of two dimensions. With some practice
you can play the game in 4D also, and if you can think of a third
symbol, even three players can participate. This will give you a 'feel'
for the additional 'freedom' that an extra dimension will bring.
The game discussed here and its generalizations are a good exam-
ple of how analytical thinking helps to study a problem and simplify
it. The number of 'triplets' as we had defined, is too large in higher
dimensions to be counted directly. But sorting out different 'types'
of triplets into different categories helps immensely. In counting like
this, one has to ensure that no case is left out and none is counted
more than once.
1. Of the 49 triplets in a cube, how many are the shortest in length,

i.e., are parallel to the edges of the cube? How many are along
diagonals lying in planes parallel to the faces of the cube? (Recall
that 4 out of the 49 are along the diagonals of the cube.)
2. Carry out a similar exercise as in the preceeding question for a
hypercube.
6
The Barber's Paradox
6.1 LOGIC, MATHEMATICS AND GAMES
I V I athematics prides itself on being a subject based on logical

reasoning. What is 'logic'? A dictionary would define logic as a subject
of reasoning, a subject that lays down precise rules on how one
should argue out a proposition, how one can demonstrate whether
it is true or false. Logic lays emphasis on having a sequence of
statements each following as a deduction from the preceding one,
till one reaches the final statement which was the proposition to be
proved true or false.
In all this, one has to start somewhere\ That is, one needs to
assume some statement as true to begin with, and then proceed
from there. The opening statement or set of statements, known as
axioms, are taken as self-evident statements whose truth is assumed
to be given. The whole facade of proving a proposition true or false,
rests on these axioms.
In Chapter 9, we will come across the classic case of Euclid's
geometry as a system based on axioms. Right now, we rely on
analogies — from the games of cricket or football.
In a typical game, there is a set of ground rules which define how
the game is to be played. These are accepted by everybody playing
the game, accepted without argument. Based on these rules, the
umpire or the referee is empowered to monitor the progress of the
game, to decide when a score is registered, when a player is to be
penalized for breaking some rule, how the game is declared ended,
and so on. The ground rules must be so framed, however, that the
referee is able to decide unequivocally, what ruling to give. Thus,
there should be no ambiguity as to what the decision has to be;
T H E BARBER'S PARADOX 47
nor should there be any self-contradiction. For example, in cricket

if there arose a situation according to which by one set of rules the
batsman was out, and by another, he was not out, then there would
be chaos! (See Figure 6.1). There would be endless arguments and
the umpires would not be able to function.
Figure 6.1 There would be chaos if the two umpires gave contradictory rulings
Mathematics is a game, functioning with a set of ground rules

and governed by logic. Just as we have different games like football,
cricket, chess, bridge, etc., each with its own set of rules, so does
mathematics have different branches: arithmetic, algebra, geometry,
and so on! Each follows its own set of rules and it would be wrong
to say that one is right and the other wrong just because they
differ. In this book, we will encounter several different branches
or sub-branches of mathematics obtained by different sets of rules
or axioms. Each is consistent within itself, although all are quite
different from one another.
6.2 PARADOXES
Having said all this, we have to ensure that the basic rules that
define a particular branch or sub-branch of mathematics do not lead
to paradoxes. But what is a paradox ?
To get an idea of a paradox consider the following story. There
was a village in which there was only one barber who shaved all
those and only those who did not shave themselves. The question
now is:"Did the barber shave himself?" (See Figure 6.2)
To shave or
not to shave?
Figure 6.2 The barber's dilemma.
Suppose he did. In which case, he was one of those who shaved

themselves. Whence, by his own rule, he should not be shaving
himself, because he shaved only those who did not shave themselves.
On the other hand, if he did not shave himself, he belonged to the
class of people who did not shave themselves and so, by his own
rule, he should shave himself!
In the above example, what has happened is the following. We first
started with a statement ('The barber shaved himself) and arrived
at a conclusion which was the exact opposite ('The barber did not
shave himself'). We next started with the opposite of the statement
('The barber did not shave himself') and again arrived at the exact
opposite conclusion ('The barber did shave himself)
Such a situation is called a 'paradox', a situation that does not
permit a clear, logical outcome.
In logic, one is accustomed to assuming that a statement is either
true or false. One method of proving the falsehood of a statement
is to assume that it is true and then argue further and deduce a
self-contradiction. Then one is able to conclude that the statement
must be false. This method of proof is called the method of 'reductio
ad absurdum' meaning 'reduction to absurdity'. An ingenous use of
this method is illustrated in the next section.
However, a paradox arises when the statement as well as its
opposite both lead to absurdity. This is what happened in the case of
the village barber. We found that we arrived at a contrary conclusion
whichever way we started our argument.
6.3 EUCLID'S PROOF OF INFINITY OF PRIMES
A prime number is one which has only 1 and itself as divisors. Thus,
the numbers 2,3,5,7 and 11 are the first five primes. As you increase
the number, the possibility of its having a divisor increases. Does
that mean that the supply of prime numbers will eventually dry up ?
Take for example, the statement: The total number of prime numbers
is infinite. Is this statement true or false?
To test if a number N is a prime, one needs to try dividing it
by the prime numbers which preceded it. Because, whatever divisors
it may have will themselves have divisors, until we reach the prime
divisors. For example,
108 = 12 x 9 = (4 x 3) x (3 x 3) = 2 x 2 x 3 x 3 x 3,
where all the divisors in the final form are the primes 2 and 3.
In fact, one does not need to go on testing with primes beyond

the square root of the number. Thus, to test if 103 is a prime we try
dividing it by the primes 2,3,5,7, to discover that they do not divide
it. One need not try dividing by the next prime 11, because 11 x
11 exceeds 103, that is, 11 is greater than the square root of 103.
So if we try and divide 103 by 11 or any larger prime, the quotient
will always be less than 11, and we have already tried all the primes
below 11. This method, however, gets more and more cumbersome
as the number N increases, and beyond a certain level, even the
best available computer falls short of the capacity to try out all such
likely prime divisors. Also, there are an infinite number of positive
integers, and one cannot test them all in a finite span of time.
Under these circumstances, the Greek mathematician Euclid
300 ВС) used the method of reductio ad absurdum to show that the
number of primes is infinite.
His method was as follows. Suppose that the number of primes
is finite. Then there will be a largest prime say, P . If we take any
number larger than P , therefore, it must have all its factors or
divisors made up of primes up to and including P .
Now make up a number N by multiplying all primes up to and
including P and adding 1 to the product:
JV = 2 x 3 x 5 x 7 x ... x P + 1 .
This number N is obviously greater than P. Is it a prime ? By our
assumption, it cannot be, since we have started with the assumption
that P is the largest prime. But then if N is divided by any prime
upto and including P, it leaves a remainder 1; in other words, it
is not divisible by any known primes. Since by our assumption N
cannot be a prime, it must have a prime divisor Q which we have so
far missed. Since we have tested dividing by all the known primes
up to and including P, this new prime Q can only be greater than
P. But this is a contradiction of our assumption that P is the largest
prime. So our original assumption that the number of primes is
finite, is wrong. Hence, their number is infinite.
6.4 RUSSELL'S PARADOX
Early in the 20th century, Bertrand Russell had extensively discussed

the logical foundations of mathematics in his well known book
Principia Mathematica. The barber's paradox, described above, arose

from his notion of sets.
A set, as we understand it from its day-to-day meaning, is a
collection of objects. Thus, a group of pigeons sitting on your roof
is a set of pigeons. The banknotes in your wallet constitute a set of
banknotes. And so on and so forth. We can have abstract sets also,
like a set of ideas. The set can be finite or infinite, depending on
whether the number of objects in it is finite or infinite. As we saw
in the last section, the set of prime numbers is infinite.
From the notion of a set, Russell moved on to the next hierarchy,
the set of sets. A province is a set of people living in it. A country
is a set of provinces in it, that is, it is a set of sets of people. In a
fruit market we see a set of fruit vendors, each vendor has a set of
different fruits, while each type of fruit is piled up in a set of its
own. So we can have a set of sets of sets,... and so on.
Can we have a set of sets that contains itself ? Yes. An example
is, a list of lists. A list is a collection of objects arranged in an order.
A list of lists, being itself a list is therefore part of itself! Now
consider a set A made of all sets that do not contain themselves.
Does A contain itself? If it does, then it is not one of those sets
that contain themselves; and so should not be included in A. On
the other hand, if we assume that A does not contain itself, then by
definition, it should form part of A. Either way we argue, we are
led to a contradiction.
This is the famous Russell's Paradox and its similarity to the
barber's paradox is evident. Although the paradox itself led to a lot
of arguments and discussions about sets, it served to underscore the
fact that not all questions are answerable clearly by a 'Yes' or 'No'.
An interesting paradox of a similar kind is described in the next
section.
6.5 THE W I T C H ' S CURSE
In the 19th century, the operatic scene in Britain was considerably

enlivened by the comic operas of WS Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan.
One of these was the opera called Ruddigore, subtitled The Witch's
Curse. It centred around a wicked baron, Sir Roderick Murgatroyd
of Ruddigore, who was the last in the line of baronets cursed by a
witch in the following way:
"Each lord of Ruddigore

Despite his best endeavour,
Shall do one crime, or more,
Once, every day, for ever!
This doom he can't defy,
However he may try,
For should he stay
His hand that day
In torture he shall die!"
Figure 6.3 The clever person pointing out the solution to the witch's curse.
As a result, Sir Roderick had to commit some crime or other,

every day just to stay alive, although at heart he was gentle and kind.
Knowing this family curse, a girl whom he loved passionately and
who reciprocated his feelings would not marry him. Until a clever
character in the story solved their problem in the following way: he

advised the baronet not to commit any crime. Would he then not
die fulfilling the prophecy ?
No! said the clever character. (See Figure 6.3). For, refusing to
commit a crime was tantamount to inviting death and thus an attempt
to commit suicide. But then, isn't an attempt at suicide itself a
recognized crime?
Hence, by not committing any crime, the baronet would be com-
mitting a crime and was thus saved! So the story ended happily, but
by recourse to a paradox.
6.6 CONCLUSION
These examples illustrate the pitfalls of logic in certain situations.

They also warn us that every question does not have a clear-cut
'yes/no' answer. (Recall the question: Have you stopped beating your
wife?) Thus, if we wish to prove a statement to be right by proving
that its opposite is wrong, we may run into a paradox. For there
may also exist a proof that the statement itself is wrong.
In Chapter 16, we will encounter a famous theorem that highlights
the logical pitfalls in the structure of a mathematical system.
1. An unhappy prisoner was called before the Judge for sentencing.

"Young man, you deserve to die, and I will ensure that you do
so", said the Judge putting on his black cap. "You will either
hang to death, or will be shot to death. I have decided which
way it is going to be. But you are allowed to guess. If you guess
correctly you shall be hanged, if you guess wrongly, you shall be
shot. Now have your guess." At this offer, the prisoner's eyes lit
up...can you say, why?
2. "You will be hanged sometime during the next seven days" the
King sentenced the hapless Vizier who had disobeyed the royal
command. "What is more, you will not be able to guess even a
day in advance, which day you will be hanged" added the King
for good measure. The Vizier smiled. "If I may be permitted to
say something, sir...". "Sure, go ahead! Have your last say", said
the King. "Sir, under the above rules, you cannot execute me!
For, suppose you have decided to execute me on Day 7, I will
know by the end of Day 6 that this is the case. So it can't be
Day 7. Likewise, can it be Day 6? No, because, Day 7 having
been ruled out, I will know on Day 5 that I am to be executed
on Day 6, which will again spoil your rule. And so on, and so
forth. So Sir, I cannot be executed on any of the seven days".
"But, but, ...." the King was puzzled, he thought the Vizier could
be executed on any preassigned day, without his knowing it in
advance. Is there a fallacy in the Vizier's reasoning? Or can he
get away with it?
7
The Seventeen Rule Breakers
T h e r e is a junior college in a town and there are quite a few teenage

students, who ride motorbikes or scooters. The college Principal laid
down a rule that all students must wear helmets while riding. The
parents, of course, approved of the rule.
After a few days, however, it was observed that a few students
wore helmets only when their parents were watching and not other-
wise. (See Figure 7.1). The teachers thought that this was a serious
matter and accordingly reported it to the principal. They informed
him that there were in all 17 students who flouted the rule and did
not wear helmets if their parents were not watching. These students
had to be punished. The Principal viewed the list of students to be
punished and noted that all of them came from separate households.
In fact, no household sent two children to the college. He, however,
sent the following letter to all the parents, including the 17 whose
children had committed the offence:
"I have observed that there are some students who do not wear
helmets while riding scooters if their parents are not watching. We
request the parents of the guilty students to punish their own wards
by shaving their heads before sending them to the college in the
morning, so that they will henceforth start wearing helmets."
The teachers were perplexed. Why didn't the Principal simply

write to the parents of the offenders? The Principal, who was also
a maths teacher, asked them to be patient and watch the fun. He
had based his course of action on two facts. First, he knew that all
the parents were well versed in logical reasoning. Second, he was
aware that while each set of parents knew whether the child of other
parents was an offender or not, they did not know for sure the status
of their own child. The Principal was confident that rather than
question their child directly, each set of the patents would prefer to
use logical reasoning to find out whether their respective child was
an offender or not.
Figure 7.1 An offending student!
Nothing happened for the first few days, as the teachers anxiously
watched. None of the students was punished. More than two weeks
passed - the teachers were losing hope - when the Principal assured
them that action was imminent. "Wait for the eighteenth day", he
said.
Sure enough, on the eighteenth day, the seventeen students, the
boys as well as the girls, who were culprits, came to the college
covering their shaven heads with helmets. How was this achieved?
Why did the parents of the offending children wait for 17 days?
The solution to this problem illustrates the principle of mathemat-
ical induction as applied to logical inference. Remember that each
parent knew if any other student was breaking the rule and was
unsure only of his or her own ward. If there were only one culprit,
the parents of that student would have argued as follows:
T H E SEVENTEEN RULE BREAKERS 57
"We are not aware of any student guilty of not wearing a helmet,
except possibly our own child. Since the Principal has made this
announcement, there has got to be at least one child who is guilty
and that has to be ours."
So the guilty student would have been punished on the : morning

of the next (second) day. If there were two guilty students, neither
would have been punished on the first day as the parents would be
unsure of their own wards. Suppose the parents are Mr A & Mrs
A, and Mr В & Mrs B. Now, the former would argue that they
know that there is one guilty child for sure, that of Mr & Mrs B. In
addition, their own child may also be an offender. However, if their
child was innocent, then, as discussed earlier, Mr & Mrs В would
punish their child on the morning of the next day. So Mr & Mrs
A would wait and watch for one day. However, nothing happens on
this day, as Mr & Mrs В argue in the same way and wait and watch
because they too are not sure of the status of their child. When
nothing happens on the second day, both sets of parents deduce
that their assumption that their children are innocent is wrong. So
on the next (i.e., in the morning of the third) day, they proceed to
punish their respective wards.
This argument can be carried on for any finite positive integer
which gives the number of guilty students. Which is why the parents
of the 17 guilty children waited till the morning of the eighteenth
day to act.
7.1 MATHEMATICAL INDUCTION
The principle of mathematical induction is an excellent tool which is

used to prove many theorems about positive integers. Suppose the
general statement involves a positive integer n and is denoted by
P(n), say. If P(n) is to be proved for each positive integer n, then it
is first proved for n = 1 . Then, assuming that P(n) holds for every
positive integer n, 1 < n < k, it is proved for n = к + 1. Here, к is
an arbitrary positive integer. Then it is deduced that P(n) holds for
every positive integer n. This is called the principle of mathematical
induction.
In fact, it is easy to prove the principle of mathematical induction,
using the well-ordering principle of positive integers. This principle

states that any non-empty set of positive integers has one element
which is the smallest. This, in turn, rests on the axiom that there is
no positive integer between two consecutive positive integers which
are written as к and к+ 1.
Some theorems which are proved easily by the principle of math-
ematical induction are given below.
1 + 2 + 3 + .. . + n = \ n ( n + 1),
l 2 + 2 2 + 3 2 + . . . + n 2 = i n ( n + 1)(2n + 1),
о
l 3 + 2 3 + З 3 + . . . + n 3 = J n 2 ( n + l) 2 ,
and so on.
Let us look at the first of the above results. It is easy to verify
that it holds for n = 1. Let us suppose that it holds for 1 < n < k,
for some k. Can we then prove that it holds for n = к + 1 ? We have,
1 + 2 + 3 + ... + *; = h ( k + l). (7.1)
Now add к + 1 to this. We then get
1 + 2 + 3 + .., + k + (k + l) = h{k + l) + (k + l) = l(k + l)(k + 2), (7.2)

£ &
which proves the result for n = к + 1. So mathematical induction

tells us that the result is true for all positive integral values of n.
Try proving the other results using similar methods.
In the case of the 17 wayward teenagers, their parents used this
kind of argument, which is why they waited so long to act.
7.2 TRUE OR FALSE
In Chapter 6, we encountered paradoxes where logical reasoning

seems to lead nowhere. Those pitfalls apart, let us try and use the
rules of logical reasoning to solve some problems. Rather than give
any formal set of rules, we will go by commonsense. Thus, if a
statement A is made, we will assume that it is either true or false.

Let us start with a simple example.
An island is inhabited by two tribes. Tribe 7 has the characteristic
that its member always tells the truth. Tribe II members are the
exact opposite. They always tell lies. Now a tourist visited the island
and come across three persons, А, В and С walking together. (See
Figure 7.2)
Figure 7.2 Which of the tribals is telling the truth?
He asked A : "To which tribe do you belong?"

A replied, but his answer was barely audible and so the tourist
asked В and С what was A's answer.
"He said that he belongs to Tribe 7", said B.
"No, he said that he belongs to Tribe 77", replied C.
Given these replies, can you say to what tribes В and С belong?
And can you also say what is A's tribe?
Well, let us consider two possibilities. First, suppose that A belongs
to Tribe 7. That means he always tells the truth. So to the tourist's
question he would have replied that he belongs to Tribe 7.
However, what would he have replied, had he belonged to Tribe
77? He would have told a lie and said that he belongs to Tribe 7.
Which means that under either possibility, A's answer would be

the same, namely that he belongs to Tribe I.
Now look at what В said. В answered correctly and so В belongs
to Tribe I. C, on the other hand, answered falsely and must therefore
belong to Tribe II.
So we know to what tribes В and С belong; but are still in the
dark as to what is A's tribe. The tourist had better ask В again,
what is A's tribe!
7.3 SISTERS AT THE T-JUNCTION
A motorist was travelling from city X to city Y. He came to a

T-junction where the signboard was missing. Obviously, one road led
to Y and the other to some unknown destination. At the junction,
however, was a motel which was owned by two sisters В and C.
The guidebook consulted by the tourist carried an important noting
about the motel, made by a previous user. It warned the tourist that
one of the sisters always told the truth while the other was notorious
for always giving false and misleading replies.
Figure 7.3 The motorist must know the road to Y and which sister is lying.
The motorist rang the bell and was confronted by В and C. (See
Figure 7.3.) Before he could ask any directions the two girls pointed
to a written notice which said "Please ask the same question to each
one of us and find out what you wish to know".
The motorist did not have the vital piece of information as to
which one of В and С would always tell the truth and which one
would give misleading replies. So he had to ask the same question
to both В and С in such a way that he could find out the correct
direction to Y. However, for the future users of the guide, he also
wished to find out who was telling the truth and who was the habitual
liar. All from the same question, of course!
Can you formulate a suitably phrased question which the ambitious
motorist can ask?
Try for a while . . . we will provide the answer later on in this
chapter. Meanwhile, we shall move on to another puzzle requiring
similar powers of reasoning.
7.4 THREE PUNDITS IN THE ROYAL COURT
The King wanted to appoint a prime minister, as the existing incum-

bent was on the verge of retirement. So he asked the existing prime
minister to devise a selection process that would select a really clever
person, one who could rightfully replace him. The PM placed an
advertisement which, of course, attracted a lot of aspirants. By pre-
liminary tests of general knowledge and other required attainments,
the PM narrowed down the list to three clever pundits. Let us call
them А, В and C. The PM invited them to the royal court for the
final round which the King himself could witness.
He seated the three pundits at the vertices of an equilateral
triangle, facing one another. Then he blindfolded them and applied
a 'tilak' on their foreheads. He removed the blindfolds so that each
pundit could see the tilaks of the other two but not his own. (See
Figure 7.4.) The PM then informed them: "We have two types of
tilaks, white and red. We will not tell you the colour applied to your
forehead. But of course each one of you can see the colours of
others. Now, to begin with, raise your hand if you see at least one
red tilak".
All three pundits raised their hands.
Figure 7.4 A guessing game? No, an exercise in logical thinking for the three
pundits.
"Good! Now let us see which one of you can guess the colour of
your own tilak first".
The pundits were puzzled to begin with and started thinking
furiously. The cleverest of them all, B, arrived first at the correct
answer:
"Sir, my tilak is red".
The PM singled him out as his successor, as one who could reason
logically and quickly. How did В figure out the colour of his tilak?
Let us elucidate right away that there was no discrimination between
the three, that all three had red tilaks. If you want to see whether
you are as clever as В in deductive reasoning, think for yourself
before reading the following paragraph which gives the solution.
Well, В could see that both A and С had red tilaks. He assumed
to begin with that his own tilak was white, and then put himself in
A's place. What is A seeing, he asked himself. A must be seeing
the red tilak on С and a white tilak on B. So A would argue thus.
Why had С raised his hand? Because he saw a red tilak. This can't
be on B's forehead (which is white), and so must be on his own
forehead. Thus A would have immediately deduced that his tilak
was red. And so also would C! But В could see that both A and С
were still thinking and trying to figure out the solution. That they
were confused could only be because B's own tilak was not white but
red. Hence, he quickly arrived at the correct conclusion. He knew
of course that sooner or later A and С would also get there!
7.5 RETURN TO THE TWO SISTERS
If you have not solved the problem posed earlier in this chapter,
here is the answer. The motorist should ask the following question:
"I have come from the city Y and wish to go to the city X. Can you
please show me the way to X?"
Now suppose В tells the truth while С tries to mislead him with
lies. В will therefore point out the road towards X, which the motorist
knows to be the correct answer, as he came along that road. С on the
other hand will not point to X, nor will she point to Y, since she
has been told by the motorist that he came along that way. So she
will point to the third direction, that of Z.
So far as the motorist is concerned, he now knows that the girl
who pointed to X is the truthful one. He therefore knows that the
other one is telling lies and the remaining direction (not pointed out
by either В or С) must lead to the city Y.
1. A tourist arrives at a T-junction and discovers that there are

no road signs to tell him which road to take for his intended
destination. In the motel located near the junction are two sisters,
one of whom always tells the truth, the other always lies. The
tourist has to ask one question to any one of the two sisters (he
does not know whether the sister is telling the truth or lying) and
discover the correct direction to his destination. What question
should he ask?
2. There are five members on the Managing Committee of a Society.

Of these, Archana, Bhamini and Charuta represent the women
while Dhananjay and Eknath represent the men. They occupy
the positions of President, Vice-President, Chairperson, Secretary
and Treasurer, although not in that order. For the first time, on
this occasion, there was a lady Chairperson. She is a confirmed
spinster and activist for women's rights. Thanks to her, becoming
aware of 'gender equality' the Society changed the designation
'Chairman' to 'Chairperson'. They all know each other very well,
in fact the President and Treasurer shared the same dormitory
in a boarding school for boys. Archana and Eknath are twins,
while Charuta's husband is the Treasurer's brother. There is
romance in the Managing Committee also: the President and the
Secretary are due to be married next week, with Bhamini acting
as the (honorary) bride's sister. Who is holding what office in
the Society?
3. Three bags contain fruit: one has apples, one has mangoes while
the third has mangoes and apples. They are labelled "apples",
"mangoes" and "mangoes and apples", but none of the labels is
on the correct bag. You are allowed to select only one fruit from
one bag and then tell which label should go on which bag. How
will you proceed?
4. Three married couples were celebrating their silver wedding

anniversaries together at a dinner-dance. While most of the
evening the husband-wife pairs danced together, there were a few
dances where partners were exchanged. But no woman danced
the fox-trot with her husband. Instead, Albert danced with Dora,
Bob partnered Cedric's wife and Fiona's husband danced with
Emily. Can you sort out, who was married to whom?
5. There are three houses each on the two sides of Gul Mohar
Avenue, facing one another. They have six professionals living
in them. The lawyer has the doctor and Mr Desai as next-door
neighbours. The professor lives next door to the accountant while
Mr Erande has one of the end houses. The restaurant owner
lives facing Mr Borade, and Mr Falake does not live opposite the
accountant. The engineer and Mr Chordia are both neighbours
of Mr Apte. Name all the professionals.
6. A rasagulla which mother had been saving for father returning

to Calcutta was eaten by one of the children. So she called all

five of them. They made the following statements in which she
noted that four were true statements and one was false. Given
this, can you tell who had eaten the rasagulla? Also, who was
the liar? The statements were as follows.
Amitabha said: "Bhaswati didn't take it"

"And I know that Darpana didn't take it", said Ekalabyo.
"Ekalabyo took it, of course", said Chaitanyo.
"Anyway, Amitabha did not take it", said Darpana.
"Darpana took it", said Bhaswati.
So whodunit?
7. Here is an extension of the three pundit problem. Now we have
four pundits, all exceptionally intelligent and all familiar with the
three-pundit problem. They are told that a white or red mark
(tilak) will be placed on their foreheads as in the three pundit
case. All four have red tilak placed on their foreheads. Then they
are told that anyone should stand up if he sees red tilaks on two
foreheads. All four stand up. Then they are asked to figure out
the colour of their own tilak as soon as possible. The cleverest
of them comes up with the correct answer. How did he reason?
щ
Fallacies in Algebra
and Geometry
I n Chapter 6, we came across paradoxes where arguments along

either of the two available alternatives led nowhere. That is, we
arrived at a conclusion that contradicted the assumption it was based
on. We now look at another situation where we arrive at absurd
conclusions, because somewhere down the line of our arguments we
used an illegal step. Only, what makes the situation interesting is
the fact that this false step is hard to detect.
Such false steps and the arguments based on them are called
fallacies. Sometimes fallacies are so cleverly concealed (more by
accident than intentionally) that even experienced mathematicians
fail to spot them. Of course, in cases where the conclusion drawn is
manifestly absurd, we know that these arguments must be fallacious;
in which case, with sufficient care we can pick out the 'wrong' step.
It is in cases where we do not know what the status of the final
conclusion is, that the fallacy undetected is a fallacy lethal! We will
come back to this topic at the end of this chapter.
Meanwhile, let us begin with a simple fallacy in arithmetic. Con-
sider the following equation:
16 — 36 = 25 — 45. (8.1)
It is correct; both sides equal - 2 0 . Now add to both sides the same
quantity, viz. 81/4:
81 81
16 - 36 + — = 25 - 45 + — (8.2)
4 4
FALLACIES IN ALGEBRA AND GEOMETRY 67
It is not difficult to see that these quantities can be written as follows:
42 2 4x
- * MJ)2=52-2*5*HC)2' <8'з>
Now recall the algebraic expression for the squared difference of
two numbers a and 6:
a2 -2 x a x b + b2 = (a-b)2. (8.4)
If we identify a with 4 and b with 9/2 on the left-hand side and a
with 5 and b with 9/2 on the right-hand side of (3), we get
Taking the square root of each side gives
4 - | = 5 - f . (M)
which leads to the astonishing conclusion that
4 = 5. (8.7)
Clearly, this is absurd. But where have we gone wrong?
Let us examine our steps from (8.1) to (8.7). From (8.1) to (8.2)
is simple arithmetic. So is it from (8.2) to (8.3). The indentification
of (8.3) with (8.4) so as to lead to (8.5) is also right. Now we know
that if two numbers are equal their squares are also equal. In (8.5)
we have squares of two numbers being equal, and so the conclusion
drawn in (8.6) that the numbers are equal must also be correct.
Then the conclusion in (8.7) is inescapable!
In our recap of all steps is there a mistake? There has to be; but
can you spot it?
Think for a while... or wait till half-way through this chapter, when
we will reveal the fallacious step.
8.1 THE MISUSE OF ZERO
Let us look at some simple manipulations in algebra next. Let a, b,

с be three quantities. Let us suppose that
a= b (8.8)
Now multiply both sides of (8.8) by c. Then we get
ac = be (8.9)
Then add ab - b2 to both sides to get
ac + ab - b2 = bc + ab - b2 (8.10)
Transfer ac from the left-hand side to the right-hand side, changing

its sign, of course! We then get
ab — b2 = be + ab — b2 — ac,
i.e., on factorizing,
b(a-b) = c(b-a) + b(a-b), (8.11)
which factorizes to give
b(a — b) — (b — c)(a — b). (8.12)
Cancelling the (a - b) factor on both sides yields
b = b — c. (8.13)
This conclusion forces us to assume that с = 0! But nowhere in the

above argument did we assume that с was zero. Thus, the above
conclusion must hold for any b and any c, zero or non-zero. Taking
b = 5, с = 1, we get the absurd answer 5 = 4. Again, we must have
gone wrong somewhere. Where?
The illegal operation can be detected after some investigation: it
is in going from Eq. (8.12) to (8.13). It is true that the factor (a — b)
is common to both sides. But while striking it off, we apparently
forgot that it is zero! Remember, we started with the assumption
a = b. What we failed to observe was the elementary commandment:
"Thou shalt not divide by zero".
Breaking this commandment in the above operation and the con-

sequent disastrous conclusion remind us that mathematics demands
a strict discipline. Its basic rules must be obeyed. If not, we must be
prepared for absurdities to arise.
8.2 FALLACIES IN GEOMETRY
You may think that fallacies can arise more easily in algebra, because
while dealing with abstract symbols (as in the preceding example)
we are likely to forget realities. Geometry, with its statements about
figures containing lengths and angles, is more down to earth and
should be free from fallacies. Not so! Let us look at the proof of
the following proposition:
A right angle is equal to an obtuse angle.
How can this be true? You may well ask; but then, look at the
following proof and discover its fallacy. See Figure 8.1.
Figure 8.1 See the text for details.
Proof: First, draw any rectangle ABDC with side AB parallel to the
side CD and side AC parallel to BD. Next, draw a line DE equal
to DB but lying outside the rectangle so that the angle ZBDE is
acute. Join AE. Next, draw the perpendicular bisectors XY and ZY
of AB and AE, meeting at the point Y which (as shown in Figure
8.1) lies outside the rectangle. Join Y to A, E, С and D.
Now, since XY is a perpendicular bisector of AB, it is also
a perpendicular bisector of CD. Thus, CY = DY. We also have
AY = EY since Y lies on the perpendicular bisector of AE.
Therefore, for the two triangles, AY AC and AY ED, we have
AY = EY, CY = DY, a n d AC = DE, (8.14)
the last equality follows because by our construction DE = DB, and

DB equals the opposite side AC of the rectangle ABCD. Therefore,
the two triangles are congruent. Hence, their corresponding angles

are equal. So, Z.YDE = ZYCA.
However, since the triangle YCD is an isosceles, the angles Z.YDC
and Z Y C D are equal. Subtracting Z.YDC from Z_YDE and Z Y C D
from Z.YCA we get,
Z.CDE = /DC A. (8.15)
But look at Figure 8.1; the angle Z.CDE is obtuse while the /.DCA
is a right angle!
So our proof is complete. But then what is wrong with it? If you
are worried by this proof, look at the next proposition which we are
now going to state and prove.
8.3 EVERY TRIANGLE IS ISOSCELES!
Clearly, if this proposition is true then all hell will break lose; so
watch carefully how we prove it. Again we carry out the following
construction described in Figure 8.2. Remember that the A A B C
drawn there is any triangle. We are going to prove that AB = AC.
Construction: Bisect the angle Z В А С by line AD and also draw
the perpendicular bisector of the side ВС as ED, the two lines
meeting at the point D inside the triangle. Draw DX perpendicular
to AC and DY perpendicular to AB. Join DB and DC.
Proof : Note that D lies on the perpendicular bisector of the side
ВС. Therefore, DB = DC.
A

Next, consider the triangles AAXD and AAYD. Since D lies on

the angle bisector of the sides AB and AC, it is equidistant from
them, i.e., DY = DX. We also have ZYAD = IXAD. Since the two
angles ZDYA and ZDXA are both right-angles, we already have
two angles of the triangles AAYD and AAXD, respectively, equal
and so their third angles ZADX and ZADY are also equal. Because
they share a common side AD, the two triangles are congruent.
Therefore,
AY = AX. (8.16)
Then we consider triangles ABDY and ACDX. Here we have
DY = DX, since they are the corresponding sides of the congruent
triangles AAYD and AAXD and DB = DC (already proved). Since
both are right-angled triangles, they are congruent. Therefore, their
third sides are also equal:
BY = CX. (8.17)
Now it only remains to add the corresponding sides of (8.16) and
(8.17), and voilal
AB = AY + BY = AX + CX = AC. (8.18)
Evidently anarchy would take over if such results were certified
as correct. So, equally evidently a fallacy exists somewhere. Do try
and find out where, before reading on.
8.4 WHERE WAS THE FALLACY?
We will now reveal where the arguments crossed the bounds of

legality in the examples considered here.
In going from Eq. (8.5) to Eq. (8.6), we argued that if two
numbers are equal so are their square roots. This is not the case
always. Take the number 4. It has two square roots +2 and - 2 . For,
(+2) x (+2) = 4 and also, ( - 2 ) x ( - 2 ) = 4. Thus, the two numbers
+2 and - 2 are unequal but have the same square. In fact, if we have
a2 = b2, then we can say that a = b only if both have the same sign.
In (8.6) we have (4 - | ) negative being equated to (5 - §) which is
positive, which is wrong. Rather, we should have written
The squares of both satisfy Eq. (8.5) and both numbers are positive.
And, of course, (8.19) describes an arithmetically correct statement.
So be careful when taking square roots and ensure that the signs
match.
Let us come to the fallacy in the proof of a right angle equalling
an obtuse angle. Try drawing the figure accurately and you will find
that the correct version looks like Figure 8.3.
Figure 8.3 Figure 8.1, if drawn correctly, should look like this.
Notice that the angle Z.YDE faces outward from the rectangle and
not towards it, as drawn in Figure 8.1. Thus, Z.YDE is not equal to
the sum of Z.YDC and Z.CDE. Rather the sum of the three angles
equals 360°. Hence, we cannot claim the final part of the proof, viz.
ZCDE = ADC A.
The proof that every triangle is isosceles also errs in construction. If
you draw the figure (Figure 8.2) correctly, it has point D lying outside
the A ABC, below the base ВС. Even then you might get away with
a false proof if you drop the perpendiculars DX and DY both on
the lines AC and AB extended, i.e., both lying outside the triangle.
In which case, you will have AB = AY - BY = AX - CX = AC.

However, the reality is as shown in Figure 8.4. If the side AB is
longer than AC as drawn here, then the point Y lies within AB, while
the point X lies on AC extended. Then we have AB = AY + BY,
while AC = AX - CX = AY - BY. Thus, AC < AB. Sanity prevails
at last!
A
Figure 8.4 The construction in Figure 8.2, if done correctly, should look like
this.
8.5 DEALING WITH COMPLEX NUMBERS
Another simple fallacy occurs when you deal with complex numbers.
Here, we define the complex number 4' as a square root of - 1 , i.e.,
i= Of course, there is no 'real' number whose square is - 1 ,
so this is called a 'complex number'. Complex numbers of the type
a + ib, where a and b are real numbers, play a very important and
useful role in mathematics. Thus, the real numbers [of type a + Oxi]
form a subset of the set of complex numbers. Addition, subtraction,
multiplication and division for the complex numbers are defined in
the natural way, i.e.,
(ai + ibi) + (a2 + ib2) = (ai + a 2 ) + i(b\ + b2)
(oi + ibi)(a2 + ib2) = (aia 2 - М 2 ) + i(aib2 + a2h), (8.20)

since i2 = — 1, and
oi + ibi _ (a\ + ibi)(a,2 - ib2) _ (0102 + 6162) 1(0261 - ai&2)
a 2 + ib2 (a 2 + ib2)(a2 - г62) a 2 2 + 62 2 a 2 2 + 62 2
(8.21)
if a 2 + г62 ф 0.
The division by zero is not allowed even when we extend a

number system to a larger one. We must naturally expect the laws
of elementary operations to be unchanged for the smaller system,
even when it is embedded in a larger system.
Also, a calculation carried out correctly in different ways must give
the same answer, or else it means that the rules are not mutually
consistent. To illustrate this aspect, see the following two ways of
writing 1 /г:
1 1x г_ г _ г
(II) 7г = -гHхt tг = 3г2 = —1 = - i - (8.23)
The two solutions above are not the same. Which is the correct
one? And why is the other solution wrong?
The solution (II) is correct and it follows the rule given for the
division of two complex numbers.
The fallacy in Solution (I) is in the third step. The rule
(8.24)
is correct only if a and 6 both are positive. We tend to forget this

prerequisite for the rule.
8.6 BEWARE OF FALLACIES
In the examples illustrated here, we knew beforehand that the con-

clusions were false and so we were certain that their proofs con-
tained fallacies. The question was in discovering where the proofs
went wrong. In mathematics, sometimes people are not aware of
what the correct conclusion is. In that case, undetected fallacies can
play havoc.
FALLACIES IN ALGEBRA AND G E O M E T R Y 75
There have been famous 'unsolved' problems in mathematics. Till

they are solved, they can be in the form of statements whose truth
or falsehood is not proved one way or the other. It can then happen
that 'proofs' claiming to solve the problem may contain fallacies,
which are often very subtle. Looking for such a fallacy in a new
proof can be difficult: for the proof may after all be correct and the
fallacy not present. In this book we shall come across the four-colour
problem (see Chapter 12) and Fermat's last theorem (see Chapter
16), where many fallacious proofs appeared before the right one was
proved beyond doubt.
On the other hand, there are results which have been rigorously
proved, e.g., "It is not possible to trisect an arbitrary angle with a ruler
and compass". We will discuss some examples of this in Chapter
15. Nevertheless, people who are unaware of this fact, attempt such
constructions and often think that they have succeeded. Professional
mathematicians are often sent such 'proofs' for checking which, of
course, contain some fallacy somewhere. It is a thankless task for the
professional to find the fallacy and then try to convince the sender
of the proof as to where he has gone wrong!
1. Discover the fallacy in the following proof (see Figure 8.5).

The mean value theorem in calculus states that if a function
f(x) is continuous in the interval a < x < b and f'(x) exists in
a < x < b, then for any points x, x + h in the interval a < x < b
f(x + h)- f(x) = hf'(x + eh)
where 0 < в < 1. From this, we deduce that
= / ' ( * ) •
Write e = 6h. Then we get

l i m / ' ( x + e) = /'(*)
i.e., f'(x) is continuous at x. So we have proved that if the

derivative of a function exists, it is continuous!
Figure 8.6 As the number of steps goes to infinity this staircase approaches
the diagonal very closely. Or does it?
2. In the Figure 8.6, an n-step staircase connects the diagonally

opposite vertices А, В of the square of the side a. The length
of the staircase is obviously 2a, no matter what n is. As n —> oo,
the staircase tends to the diagonal. Hence, the length of the
diagonal should be 2a, and not y/2a as the Pythagoras theorem
would give.
Where is the fallacy?
9
Geometry with New Rules
. A . person lived in a house on the Earth situated at such a spot

that when he left the house to go one mile South, then one mile
East and then one mile North, he found himself back at his house.
How on Earth is this possible? Figure 9.1a illustrates the problem.
Figure 9.1a As depicted here, the problem shows that the starting and finishing
points for this walk are not the same.
Rather, where on Earth is this possible? A little thought will convince

you that one such point is the North Pole. But there are other spots
also! Think about them and try to find out where they are located.
This example tells us about new possibilities in geometry. For,
as shown in Figure 9.1b, the person with house at N, the North
Pole, moves along the triangle NAB, in which the angles AN AB and
z'.NBA are both right angles. Since the angle ZANB is non-zero,
the three angles of the triangle Л NAB add up to more than 180°.
Figure 9.1b The triangle NAB drawn near the North Pole N, describes the
path of the person whose house is at N.
Does this not violate the theorem in Euclid's geometry that we

all proved in school?
"Wait a minute", you will say. "Look at the Figure 9.1b! There
the three lines are curved; they are not straight". You may have a
point there. Or you may not! Thereby hangs a tale.
Let us look at the whole story from the beginning and then
re-examine the above argument.
9.1 EUCLID'S PARALLEL POSTULATE
When Euclid set about formulating the subject of geometry, he had

taken a few things for granted. These were the basic definitions
of a point, line, plane, etc. and a few statements about them that
were taken as self-evident facts. These facts did not require theorems
to prove them; rather, the theorems were based on the validity of
these facts. Such statements are called axioms or postulates. Their
sole requirement is logical consistency. Thus, if we start with two
postulates as follows:
A. All lines will intersect one another,

B. There are some lines which never intersect one another,
we immediately hit a contradiction. (See Chapter 6 for examples of

such contradictory statements.)
GEOMETRY WITH N E W RULES 79
One of Euclid's postulates, known as the parallel postulate is related

to the notion of parallel lines, i.e., lines (drawn in a plane) which
never meet even if indefinitely extended. The postulate is illustrated
in Figure 9.2. It states that with given a line I and a point P outside
it, one and only one line can be drawn through P, parallel to I. In Figure
9.2, such a line is the dotted line m.
I
Figure 9.2 Euclid's parallel postulate.
This postulate looks reasonable. So reasonable, in fact, that many

mathematicians wondered whether it can be proved as a theorem by
using Euclid's remaining postulates. This they were never able to do.
From time to time 'proofs' claiming to prove the parallel postulate
appeared on the scene, only to be found fallacious. (In Chapter 8,
we have discussed fallacies in mathematical arguments.)
Of course, as we saw in Chapter 6, one way of proving that a
statement is true, is to assume its opposite to be true and then
demonstrate a logical contradiction. If we try the same for the parallel
postulate, there are two ways we can go:
(I) Assume that through P no line can be drawn parallel to I
(II) Assume that through P more than one line can be drawn parallel
to I
Do we find any self-contradictions if we assume (I) or (II), as
illustrated in Figure 9.3?
P P
II I
Figure 9.3 Two alternatives to Euclid's parallel postulate. Neither leads to

any self-contradiction if a geometry is based on it.
To their surprise, mathematicians found no contradictions. Ge-

ometries perfectly consistent within themselves were possible, either
with (I) or with (II). Only their theorems differed from those of
Euclidean geometry. Collectively, these new geometries came to be
known as non-Euclidean geometries, although specific types of such
geometries were discussed and explored by Lobatchewsky, Bolyai,

Gauss and Riemann in the 19th century.
We will now consider a specific example, of Class I, with which
we on Earth ought to be familiar.
9.2 GEOMETRY ON A SPHERE
Imagine a flat creature crawling on a spherical surface. The creature

is unaware of the third dimension that we can experience. As shown
in Figure 9.4, the creature wishes to draw a straight line between
two points A and B. Knowing the definition of a straight line to
be one along which the distance between A and В is the least, the
creature stretches an elastic rope between A and B. If he puts wet
paint on the rope, then after he has moved the rope, a mark will be
left (as shown in Figure 9.4) between A and B, indicating the path
of shortest distance from A to B. The creature will identify it as the
straight line between A and B.
Figure 9.4 How can a 'straight' line be drawn between A and В on the
spherical Earth?
What is this path? A more detailed calculation shows that this is

the arc of the circle from A to B, which is obtained by intersecting
the sphere by the plane containing А, В and O, the centre of the
sphere. The intercept is actually a circle, the so-called 'great circle'
through A and B.
The construction has more than just a theoretical significance.
Imagine an airline flying from Los Angeles to London. To save fuel,

it will try to find the shortest path between the two cities, using
precisely the above method. Of course it will not stretch a rubber-
band between London and Los Angeles: it will work out the arc of
the great circle joining them. Figure 9.5 illustrates this path on a
globe.
Figure 9.5 The shortest path from Los Angeles to London is along the arc
of the great circle through the two cities.
While this definition of a straight line is intuitively acceptable, it

produces surprises as we go along using it. The first surprise is that
this straight line has a finite length. If we go on extending it beyond
A and В in Figure 9.6, its two ends will eventually meet, thus making
a maximum length of 2-n R, where R is the radius of the sphere. In
other words, no straight line can be indefinitely extended.
Figure 9.6 The arc of the great circle through A and В can be extended in
both directions till the ends join to form the circle. Since any other great circle
will intersect this one, there are no parallel lines here!
Secondly, any two straight lines intersect! For, two such lines meet
on the two common points of the two planes and the sphere, as
shown in Figure 9.6. Since any two straight lines intersect, there
are no parallel lines on the surface of a sphere! Here, we have a
non-Euclidean geometry in which the alternative (I) to the parallel
postulate works.
Consider next the triangle A NAB in Figure 9.7. N is the North
Pole of the spherical Earth. NA and NB are two lines of meridian
— one along the zero longitude and the other along a longitude of
90° East. These lines therefore meet at N with an angle of 90°. The
points A and В lie along the Equator.
Imagine our flat creature setting out on a journey from TV to Л
then turning left to go from A to B, and then turning left again to
go back along BN to N. The creature will be conscious of having
traced a large triangle on the Earth, with a right angle at each of
its three vertices. The three angles of this triangle therefore add up
to 270°.
N
Figure 9.7 The three angles of the triangle A NAB add up to 270°/
Recall the textbook proof of the theorem that the three interior
angles of a triangle add up to 180°. Where has it gone wrong, in
the case of A N A B 1 By way of a hint for the answer, we ask you
to refer back to Euclid's parallel postulate. You will find that it is
needed for proving the theorem.
Can you also think about our one mile triangle in particular, as to
why it is not quite a triangle? {Hint: are all its sides straight lines?)
And going further, can you now think of other points on the surface
of the Earth where the house could be built while still satisfying all
the conditions of the problem? (Hint: there are infinitely many such
places, all in the southern hemisphere!)
9.3 THE GEOMETRY ON A SADDLE
Are there any practical examples of alternative II to the parallel

postulate? The saddle on the back of a horse is one such surface.
Figure 9.8 shows two lines drawn through point P on the saddle,
neither of which meet the line I. Of course, these lines are 'straight'
according to the same criterion of shortest distance used by our flat
creature on the spherical surface.
А В С 180°
Figure 9.8 The three angles of a triangle drawn on a saddle-shaped surface

add up to less than 180°.
What happens to a triangle A A B C drawn on the saddle? As

shown in Figure 9.8, the three angles of this triangle will add up to
less than 180°.
Another example of such a surface is that at the neck of a pot
which has its upper part protruding outwards to facilitate the pouring
of liquid. Figure 9.9 illustrates such a surface.
Figure 9.9 The surface arouna the neck of a jug has the geometry of Type II.
You will now agree that alternatives to Euclid's parallel postu-

late are not simply abstract concepts, but do also have practical
manifestations.
9.4 SURFACES OF POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE CURVATURE
We can see differences in the way these surfaces curve inward or

outward, in relation to the alternatives I and II to the parallel
postulate.
In Figure 9.10(i), we see two persons A and В watching a spherical
surface from two sides. At a point О on the surface, we have drawn
two perpendicular arcs X'OX and Y'OY on the surface. When
viewed by A these arcs both look concave, while to В they both
look convex.
In Figure 9.10(ii), we have replaced the spherical surface by a
saddle-shaped surface. The arcs X'OX and Y'OY are drawn as
before. However, to A the arc X'OX looks concave and the arc
Y'OY looks convex, while to В they present the opposite aspect.
(0
Figure 9.10 Surfaces of positive and negative curvature are shown in (i) and
(ii) respectively.
So when we are dealing with 'both concave' or 'both convex'

surfaces, we call these surfaces of positive curvature. When we have
a one convex — one concave type surface we call it a surface of
negative curvature. Suppose you assign a positive sign to 'convex'
and negative sign to 'concave'. Then in the first case we have
(+) x (+) — (~) x ( _ ) — positive curvature, while in the second we
have (+) x ( - ) = negative curvature.
There is a simple experiment which will tell us whether the
curvature of a surface is positive or negative. If we cover the surface
with plain paper, and the paper acquires folds and wrinkles, then
the surface is of postive curvature. If in our attempt to cover the
surface fully, the paper gets torn, then we are dealing with a surface
of negative curvature.
The plain paper here represents the Euclidean plane or a surface
of zero curvature. If we travel a small distance r from a point О on
the plane, then all such points describe a circle whose area is nr2. If
we carry out the same exercise on a surface of positive curvature, the
area enclosed will be less than irr2; whereas for a surface of negative
curvature, the enclosed area will exceed тгг2 (see Figure 9.11).
Figure 9.11 The area of a circle in case (i) will be smaller than -кг2, and
larger than this value in case (ii).
We suggest that you examine the different types of surfaces found

in our daily life. Try to find out whether their curvature is positive
or negative.
9.5 CURVATURE IN THREE DIMENSIONS
Just as our flat creature encounters strange results on curved surfaces,

can we, three-dimensional beings also experience strange aspects if
the space we live in is curved? In princple, 'yes'.
The idea of curvature of surfaces can be extended to notions of
curvature of space. If we draw a gigantic triangle AABC in space
by passing light rays between points А, В and C, and measure the
three interior angles of this triangle, what will we find?
They should add up to 180° if the space is 'flat', i.e., if Euclid's
geometry, parallel postulate included, applies to space. However,
Albert Einstein made a remarkable prediction through his general
theory of relativity. In Figure 9.12, we have a massive object inside
the triangle. Being massive, it exerts gravitational influence on the
ambient space. Einstein's prediction was that in such a case the space
around the object is curved in such a way that the three angles of
the AABC will slightly exceed 180°.
В С
Figure 9.12 A departure from Euclid in space.
It is not easy to fully verify this result. However, part of it has

been verified. Light rays grazing the surface of a gravitating object
must move along lines prescribed by the non-Euclidean geometry, as
GEOMETRY WITH NEW RULES 87
determined by general relativity. In particular, light rays from a star

behind the Sun should 'bend' as shown in Figure 9.13, rather than
move 'straight' along a Euclidean path. Do they actually do that?
Observer
Figure 9.13 The track of a light ray from the star, S, changes because the
Sun's gravity alters the geometry of space. The observed image of the star shifts
from S to S'.
Of course, this also is a difficult experiment but it is doable. If

the light from the star is bent, its image should shift. The angle of
shift is very small, at best l".75 (l" = 1 arc second = 3600th part of
a degree). But how do we see a star when the Sun is also shining
nearby? The answer is : at the time of a total solar eclipse.
Such an experiment was proposed and conducted by Arthur Stanley
Eddington, a Cambridge mathematical astronomer and one of the few
scientists who could understand and appreciate Einstein's relativity
theory soon after it was proposed in 1915. He used the 1919 total
solar eclipse to measure and confirm the effect. He and his colleagues
visited two sites, one in Sobral in Brazil and the other in the island
of Principe near Guinea, for the eclipse measurements. Since then
the effect has, of course, been measured many times.
Although often called the lending' of light rays, this name is
not strictly correct. The light rays are not bent; they continue to
travel in straight lines — but the geometry deciding what lines are
called 'straight' is changed, being a specific non-Euclidean geometry

in space arising from Einstein's theory of gravitation.
9.6 GRAVITATIONAL LENSING
Can Einstein's original prediction be extended on an even grander

scale? Imagine the situation of Figure 9.13 modified to Figure 9.14
Image A
Galaxy causing
Source
b e n d i n g of light rays^
Earth
Image В
Figure 9.14 The phenomenon of gravitational lensing is illustrated here. Two

images of the source, a quasar, are formed at A and В because of the bending
of light rays from the source by an intervening galaxy, so that the bent rays
approach the observer on the Earth from two different directions.
in this way. The star is replaced by a quasar and the Sun by a galaxy.
A quasar may be a million billion times as bright as a star and
million to billion times farther away. The galaxy may be hundred
billion times as massive as the Sun. So there may be situations
where the light rays from the quasar approach the observer from
two directions, thereby producing two images!
Figure 9.15, shows quasars with 2 and 4 images! These are examples
of 'gravitational lensing'. Just as light rays are bent when they pass
through a glass lens, so do they change directions on passing close to
a massive object. This is because the geometry of space has changed
in the neighbourhood of a massive object, as predicted by the theory
of general relativity.
56 0 8 25
15
09 57 58.0 57.5 57.0 56.5

Right ascension
Figure 9.15 a) The radio map of the quasar 0957 +561 taken by the Very
Large Array, shows two images A and B. Optical images of the quasar are
also seen at A and B. This is an example of a doubly-imaged source — an
effect of gravitational lensing by the galaxy at G. b) Isophotes (curves of equal
brightness) of the Einstein cross. At the centre four images are seen, which all
belong to one source.
9.7 ANGULAR APPEARANCE OF DISTANT SOURCES
If the universe is filled with matter out to large distances, the light
rays will experience the effect of passage across space and time where
the rules of geometry are different from Euclid's. Time measurements

as well as spatial measurements are affected. The former are seen in
the shift of lines in the spectra of distant galaxies. The lines appear to
have longer wavelengths than those in the spectra of nearby galaxies.
The latter can, in principle show a very peculiar effect, as follows.
First, let us look at it in Euclid's geometry.
In Figure 9.16, we see a round object being viewed from dif-
ferent distances. The farther the object is, the smaller does it appear.
- Decreasing angular size
Distance
Figure 9.16 The angle subtended by a spherical object at O; the angle

Z A OB, decreases as О moves farther away from the object. Thus, to О
the object looks smaller and smaller. The graph illustrates this effect, which is
according to Euclid's geometry.
(It is the same effect which makes distant mountains look smaller
compared to nearby hills, distant trees look tiny compared to pot
plants in our window.) The reason is that our perception of the
apparent size of the object is determined by the angle subtended
by the object at us, and a distant object subtends a smaller angle
at the viewer's eyes than a nearby one of the same physical size. In
Figure 9.16, the angle subtended at О decreases as its distance from
the round object increases. The angle is approximately in inverse
proportion to the distance.
In the non-Euclidean geometry of the universe, this effect may

be drastically modified for very distant objects. Beyond a certain
distance our round object may appear to grow in size! A typical
result is shown in Figure 9.17. This is certainly counter-intuitive,
but it could be true! Astronomical evidence in this regard is still
rather uncertain. But observers hope that with improved technology
of viewing distant objects, one day this effect may be properly tested.
Distance
Figure 9.17 A plot of the angle subtended by a source at an observer in an

expanding universe, against the distance between the source and the observer.
Notice that the angle first decreases as the distance increases; but beyond a
critical distance, more remote sources appear bigger!
Just as a flat creature moving on the Earth will not find an edge
to the space, although the total area of the surface of the Earth is
finite, we can imagine our three-dimensional space being like the
'surface of a hypersphere' whose volume is finite. Moving in such
a universe we will find no boundary, yet its volume will be finite.
A light ray sent out in such a universe would circle around it and
come back to us from behind! Einstein, in 1917, had proposed that
our universe may be like that. However, our present observations
cannot confirm if this conjecture is correct.
1. In a room 12 m long, 5 m wide and 5 m high, there is a spider

located in the centre of one of the short walls, at a distance of
0.5 m from the ceiling. The spider wishes to catch a fly situated in
the middle of the opposite wall, 0.5 m above the floor. The spider
can travel only along the surface of a wall. What is the shortest
route which will take him to the fly? Figure 9.18 illustrates the
situation.
Figure 9.18 The spider and the fly are on opposite walls. Which is the
path of shortest distance from the spider to the fly?
2. On a globe, find by stretching a rubber-band, the shortest route

between (i) New York and New Delhi, (ii) Sydney and London,
and (iii) Durban and Vancouver.
3. Show that if A A B C is drawn on a sphere of unit radius, and its

angles a, (3, 7 at А, В, С are measured in radians, then the area
of the triangle is given by a + (3 + 7 - n. Hence, show that in all
spherical triangles, the sum of the three interior angles always
exceeds n radians.
w
The Seven Bridges
of Konigsberg
I n the 17th century, in the town of Konigsberg in erstwhile Prussia

(now Germany), there was a system of bridges on the river Pregel
which divided into two branches, with two islands in between. There
were seven bridges in all, as shown in the adjoining map (see Figure
10.1). Some bridges connected land masses across the two branches
while some led to the islands. In Figure 10.1, two banks of the river
are В and C, while the two islands are A and D.
Figure 10.1 The layout of the seven bridges of Kdnigsberg.
The townsfolk were fond of walking across the bridges, and soon
it became apparent to them that it was impossible to take a walk in
such a way that each bridge was crossed once and only once.
Now, when one makes a statement that such and such action is
impossible, a mathematician will demand a proof for it. Thus, it may
be that with numerous trials, it was not possible for the townspeople
to achieve the above specified task: but had they tried hard enough?
Perhaps there existed a subtle method that had escaped all of them.
In short they might not have been clever enough. Or, it maybe
that the task was indeed impossible, no matter how clever the person
attempting it. But in the latter case, this must be demonstrated to
the satisfaction of a mathematician; i.e., the demonstration should

not leave a loophole of any kind.
Not surprisingly, the Konigsberg problem went to a mathematician,
in fact to one of the leading mathematicians in Europe, Leonhard
Euler. Euler studied the problem and finally came up with a proof,
that the proposed task was impossible. Before describing Euler's ar-
gument, let us look at a few similar problems.
10.1 C A N YOU TRACE THESE FIGURES?
In Figure 10.2, you have a square ABCD with its diagonals AC and
BD joined. The problem is to take a pencil, put its point anywhere
on any of the lines of the figure, and to trace it without going over
the same part of any line twice, and without lifting the pencil.
Try, starting from any of the four vertices...you will discover that
you can't do it. Are you absolutely sure that you have not left out
any new possibility?
А В
Figure 10.2 Is it impossible to trace this figure by following the conditions

specified in the text?
Now take a look at Figure 10.3. It is the same as the earlier figure,
except for one difference: the diagonal BD is absent. Can you trace
this figure now?
Again, give it a try. You will find that you can, and you can't. The
answer depends on where you start. If you start at A or C, you can,
but if you start at В or D, you can't. Thus, in this case, it matters
where you start your tracing journey.
T H E SEVEN BRIDGES OF KONIGSBERG 95
Do you see some similarity with the Konigsberg problem? Yes,

if you think of the vertex points A,B,C,D as land masses connected
by bridges represented by the lines joining them, then we have
here another bridge crossing problem. Can you construct the bridge
system for Figures 10.2 and 10.3?
А В
Figure 10.3 It is easy to show that this figure can be traced.
Similarly, the Konigsberg problem corresponds to the tracing of

Figure 10.4, wherein we are not allowed to go over the same line
twice. We will refer to it as the tracing figure of the seven-bridge
configuration. There is also another feature about this transformation,
although we have changed the picture with the banks of the river
and the islands replaced by points, the problem is essentially the
same as before.
в
Figure 10.4 Tracing the figure for the Konigsberg problem.

We will comment on this feature towards the end of this chapter.

But now, let us return to Euler's reasoning.
10.2 EULER'S ARGUMENT
We will first try to reproduce the main features of Euler's original

approach to the problem, and will generalize his conclusions to cover
other similar problems. We will then give a simpler version of the
proof.
First, suppose we continue with our representation of landmasses
by vertices, А, В, C, etc. We will then denote a path connecting two
vertices A, B, by the sequence AB. Thus, if as shown in Figure 10.5,
we have a bridge connecting A to B, and then another connecting
В to C, we denote by the 'path' ABC, the crossing of these two
bridges in that order. Thus, three letters are needed to cross two
bridges. It is not difficult to see that four letters are needed to cross
three bridges, five to cross four bridges, and so on.
A В С
Figure 10.5 The path ABC denotes two bridges sharing one end.
Referring back to the tracing figure (Figure 10.4) of the Konigsberg

bridges, if we are to cross seven bridges, we shall need an eight-
letter path. Since there are two bridges connecting A and B, the
sequence AB or В A has to occur twice. Similarly, because there are
two bridges connecting A and C, the combination AC or С A would
have to occur twice. Likewise, the combinations AD, BD and CD
will have to occur once. Let us now try to find a general rule which
will tell us if the above combinations are feasible in a sequence of
eight letters, chosen from A,B,C and D.
To find such a rule, first see what happens if there is only one
bridge connecting point A to some other point. This means that if
this bridge is crossed, whether to or from A, the point A will occur
once in the chosen path. But, what if there are three bridges from
A1 If all the three bridges are crossed only once, then the point A
will occur on the path twice. For, apart from the odd bridge out,
two bridges have to be taken in succession, and thus they share the
point A. Likewise, whenever there are odd numbers of bridges, say
2n + 1 , where n is an integer, we will have to divide the bridges into
n pairs of bridges, leaving the odd one out. [Having got to Л by a
bridge, you have to leave by another from this set; hence the pairs.]
The point A will be shared by each member of these pairs. Thus,
there will be n 'A's from these pairs, plus one from the odd one
out. So the rule for an odd number of bridges leading to or from a
point is that the point will appear in the chosen path n + 1 times,
where this number is obtained by adding one to the total number
of such bridges and dividing the sum by two.
Now let us apply this rule to the configuration of the seven bridges
and refer to its tracing figure. Recall that the correct path, if it
exists, must have 8 letters. Thus, to begin with, let us count how
many times each letter will appear in the path, remembering our
above rule. There are 5 bridges leading to point A, thus requiring
that A appears (5 + l ) / 2 = 3 times. Similarly, because there are
3 bridges to each of the points В, C, D, each of these letters will
appear twice. Thus, our path must have 3 + 2 + 2 + 2 = 9 letters. This
contradicts our first rule that there must be altogether 8 letters in
the path. Alternately, if we accept the second result, we need to
cross 8 bridges, thus repeating one bridge, which breaks the ground
rules. So, it is impossible to cross the seven bridges of Konigsberg
in the manner stipulated.
What if the number of bridges leading to a vertex A were even?
If the route starts at A, and there are two bridges leading to A, then
the letter A will occur twice in the sequence. The first at the time of
starting along one bridge, and the second at the time of returning
to A, along the other bridge. Also, the return signifies the end of
the path, since there is now no bridge left to go out of A. However,
if the route had begun elsewhere, then the letter A will occur only
once, the entry to A being along one bridge and the immediate exit
from A along the other bridge. Likewise, if there are four bridges
leading to A, then the number of times A will occur in the route is
three, if the journey starts at A and ends at A; and two if the point A
lies in the intermediate part of the route. Thus, the rule for an even
number of bridges leading to A is that one should normally divide
the number of bridges by 2 to arrive at the required frequency of
A. If, however, the path is to start at A, then increase that number
by one.
10.3 THE GENERAL PROCEDURE
luler now suggests the following procedure for dealing with any
distribution of bridges. We illustrate it with the example of the
adjoining system of fifteen bridges connecting two islands surrounded
by four rivers to the mainland. Beside it, we have drawn the tracing
figure of this bridge system. (See Figure 10.6)
Looking at the figure, mark the six regions A,B,C,D,E,F into
which the landmass is divided by the waterways. Write them in the
first column of the following Table 1, facing which you must write
the corresponding number of bridges leading to the regions. Then
in the third column write half the number of bridges, if the number
is even and half the number increased by one if the number is odd.
Thus, Table 1 looks as follows:
Table 1
A 8 4
В 4 2
С 4 2
D 3 2
E 5 3
F 6 3
Now add the numbers in the last column, to get the answer as
16. This is the number of times all the letters will come in if the
path is possible. On the other hand, since there are 15 bridges, by
our first rule the number of letters in the path has to be 15 + 1 = 16.
This suggests that the journey is possible; but we must remember,
that if we start it in a region having an even number of bridges
leading to it, our table above will have to be modified by adding one
to the corresponding figure in the last column. Thus, if we started

in region C, the letter С would have to occur not twice but three
times. In that case, the sum of the numbers in the last column
would become 17, one more than the allowed 16. This would make
a solution impossible. Hence, the journey must start in a region to
which an odd number of bridges lead, i.e., region D or E.
Figure 10.6 The layout of fifteen bridges and its tracing figure shown side by
side.
Numbering the bridges [a], [6], etc., an actual solution is given by

the following path, with the bridge connecting the regions shown:
E[a}F[b}B[c}F[f]C[g}A[e}F[d}A[h}C[i]D[k]A[m}E[n]A[j}B[o}E[l}D
Now let us study the structure of Table 1 to get a clue to the
general case. To fix ideas, let us suppose that the total number of
bridges is N. Then we expect N + 1 letters to appear in the chosen
path (if such a path were possible). First notice that when we add
the numbers in the second column, we count all the bridges twice,
since each bridge is listed amongst those leading to its two ends. The
bridge [a] connecting E and F is counted against both E and F,
for example. So, half the sum of all numbers in the second column
will be one less than the number of letters TV + 1 permitted in the
required path. If the numbers in the second column were all even,
then the sum of all the numbers in the third column will simply
be half of those in the second column, i.e., N. This means that
if we begin the journey in any vertex, we will end it at the same
vertex and that vertex will appear in the path once more than the
corresponding number in the third column. In such a case, we can
always complete the path, as the number of times all vertices will
appear will now be N + 1 (one greater than the sum of column 3),
and this is exactly the number permitted in the actual path.
What happens if there are some odd vertices, i.e. vertices to which
an odd number of bridges lead? First, note that the sum of all
numbers of column 2 being 2N, is always even. Thus, the number of
odd vertices must be even too. In our example above, the number is
2. Now, each pair of odd vertices increases the sum by one above N
in the third column; recall that the rule was that we add one to the
odd number and take half. So, we add half for each member of the
pair. Which is why, in the above example, the sum of all numbers
in column 3 was increased by 1 to 16(=iV + 1). I f , however, we have
more than 2 odd vertices, the required number in column 3 will exceed
the allowed number N +1, and in that case no solution will be possible.
So Euler's general prescription is as follows:
1. Count the number of regions with odd numbers of bridges leading

to them. Call them odd regions. If there are more than two such
regions, then no solution is possible.
2. If there are two such odd regions, then the path is possible, provided
it begins in one of those regions.
3. If there are no odd regions, then the path is always possible and can
begin at any vertex.
Euler's above argument can be made simpler to understand, as

follows. If in any path a vertex appears, but not at the beginning or
the end, the two bridges connecting it are traversed. Thus, each time
such a point comes in the path, two bridges are crossed. Only when
the path begins or ends at a vertex, only one bridge is crossed. Two
points at most can occupy the special position of being one at the
beginning and the other at the end and the rest of the points must
have an even number of bridges connecting them to other points.
For example, if a point A appears twice in the path (but not at the
beginning or the end), then 4 bridges connecting A will be crossed.
For example, a typical path could be BACDCAEFE. Thus, there
can be at most two points which are connected by odd numbers of
bridges. All the rest must be connected by even numbers of bridges.
Now you can see that the problem of the Konigsberg bridges is
unsolvable.
10.4 CONCLUSION
Sometimes, significant results emerge from apparently simple-looking

questions. The above Konigsberg question, led Euler to talk about
a general problem relating to connections between points and this,
in turn, led to a sophisticated branch of mathematics which today
is called graph theory. Moreover, the results obtained by Euler do
not depend on specific shapes and sizes; the figures in this chapter
could be distorted into other shapes and the results would still be
valid. This concept of shape-independent results, led to the subject
of topology. .
1. A chessboard, as shown in Figure 10.7, has two squares at the

ends of a chopped-off diagonal. You are given a domino piece
— a rectangle capable of covering two adjacent squares of the
chessboard. Can you cover the board with this domino piece in
such a way that each square is covered once and only once?
2. Seven gangsters А, В, C, D, E, F and G belonging to seven rival

gangs in Mumbai decided to meet in a deserted spot for a final
settlement (of who controls the crime in the city), through a
shoot-out. As shown in the adjoining figure, they were hidden
behind rocks in such a way that each shooter could hit two others
and was targetted likewise by two. After the shoot-out started,
D was the first to fall to A's bullet. In the end only A survived.
As happens in Hindi films, the police arrived in their jeep at this
stage and took A into custody, thereby claiming that they had
finally solved the gang-war problem of the metropolis. However,
while they give press conferences, can you tell who shot whom
and in what order? See Figure 10.8 for the plan of the shoot-out.
Figure 10.7 Chessboard problem.
Figure 10.8 Rival Gang's shoot-outs.
3. Using trial and error or analytical reasoning, decide whether any

of the diagrams in Figure 10.9 can be traced by a pen without
lifting the nib from the paper and without going over the same
segment again.
Figure 10.9 Try tracing these figures.
4. Find the requirement so that the bridge-crossing problem can be

solved with an extra condition, namely, one must come back to
the starting point at the end of the path.
11
The Mystical Mobius Strip
W e now look at an object which is easy enough to make but

which has mind-boggling properties. This is the so-called Mobius
Strip, whose origin dates back to 1858. Its originator August Mobius
was an astronomer turned mathematician. Born in 1790, Mobius was
at one time a student of the famous mathematician Gauss at the
Observatory in Gottingen. Although his thesis was on occultation
of stars, he later developed an interest in mathematics. Topology
was one of his favourites and the discovery for which he is best
known, the Mobius Strip, belongs to that branch of mathematics.
He thought of the idea when working on a problem of geometric
theory of polyhedra posed by the Paris Academy.
Figure 11.1a shows a Mobius Strip while, Figure 11.2 shows how
to make one. In Figure 11.2a we start with a long rectangular strip
ABCD cut out of paper. The sides AB and CD are longer than
the sides ВС and AD. In Figure (6) we have given a twist to the
strip by inverting the side ВС. In (c) we have joined the edge ВС
to edge AD in such a way, that point С joins point A and point D
joins point B.
(a)
Figure 11.1 In (a) we have the Mobius strip while in (b) we have an ordinary
cylindrical strip.
T H E MYSTICAL MOBIUS STRIP 105
Figure 11.2 The steps (a)—(c) show how to make a Mobius strip.
Had we joined A to В and D to C, we would have got the simple

cylindrical strip shown in Figure 11.16. As it is, the strip shown in
Figure 11.1a, contains one twist, which makes all the difference! Let
us next see in what way.
11.1 A SURFACE OF O N E SIDE
When we look at a piece of paper, we see a surface of two sides —

top and bottom, as shown in Figure 11.3a. If we so choose, we can
paint the top side red and the bottom-side blue.
If we examine the Mobius strip, any particular section of it (as
shown in Figure 11.36) has two sides. But this first impression is
misleading! For, if you employ two workers for painting the two sides
red and blue, the two painters will eventually meet in one place —
on the same side of the strip. This is because the the Mobius Strip has
only one surface. Also, although a local section of it seems to have
two edges, you will discover that the strip as a whole has only one
edge!
There is another surprise waiting for you if you cut the strip in two
parts, along the line passing midway between its edges (see Figure
11.4). If you did this for the cylindrical strip in Figure 11.16, you
would get two cylindrical strips instead of one, each half as wide as
the original. But see what you get from the Mobius Strip.
Figure 11.3 A typical surface as in (a) has two sides but the Mobius Strip
has only one side, as will be clear if we start painting or shading it!
Figure 11.4 Cut a Mobius Strip along the dotted line to see what you get.
Don't go by the example of the cylindrical strip.
11.2 TWIST IN SPACE
The Mobius Strip was obtained by producing one twist in a long

strip and joining the ends. There is a curious way the twist manifests
itself on objects going round the strip.
In Figure 11.5, we see a humanoid figure at (a) with only one
hand - sticking out to the right - as seen from above. This is a flat
creature which can slide along the strip, turning round clockwise or
anticlockwise, but cannot lift off the strip into a third dimension. It
would seem that the Mobius flatland will have two kinds of one-
handed creatures: those with a left hand and those with a right
and it seems that there cannot be an interchange between the two
populations.
However, ... we see the left-handed, flat fellow sliding along round
the strip along (6), (c), (<i)... till he comes back to its original position
after making one round. Here, at (d), he is upside down. If he
straightens himself by turning around half circle without moving out
of the strip, as in Figure (e), he now has his right hand sticking out!
In a curious way, he has changed over from a left-handed being into
a right-handed one. Thus, the two populations are interchangeable
after all!
b
e
Figure 11.5 Stages (a)-(e) show how a left-handed humanoid can transform
into a right-handed one by going around the Mobius Strip.
Imagine now our cylindrical strip of Figure 11.16. It also represents

a flat, two-dimensional land, in which we imagine two species of
humanoids living: one species has only left hands while the other
has the right hands. No matter how many times they go round their
land, or turn around in the same place clockwise or anticlockwise,
they will not change from one species to another. But on the Mobius
Strip they can do so, as we have just seen. And of course, if the
left-handed fellow goes around the strip once again, he will be back
to the original right-handed shape.
In Chapter 9, we encountered a closed three-dimensional universe
in which a person moving straight in one direction could make a
complete circuit of the universe and come back to the starting point
from the opposite direction. Now, imagine that the space has a 'twist'
in it, akin to that of the Mobius Strip in two dimensions. As George
Gamow once conjectured, in such a twisted closed universe a left
shoe sent round will circle the universe and return as the right shoe!
11.3 A MATHEMATICAL TRANSFORMATION
Let us examine the above examples with some simple mathematics.

In Figure 11.6, we see two rectangular axes X'OX and Y'OY which
are mirror-images of each other. We also see an inclined arrow from
the origin to the point (x,y), reflected into another arrow pointing
from the origin to the point {-x, y).
The transformation
X -> -X, у -> у (11.1)
represents the reflection in the Y'OY axis.

r
i (X,y)
X'
\L X
Figure 11.6 Reflection in the Y'OY-axis.
However, look at this transformation from the perspective of a

higher dimension. Imagine the three Cartesian axes X'OX, Y'OY
and Z'OZ, rotated around the axis Y'OY, as in Figure 11.7; the
rotation being through an angle of 180°. This results in the following
transformation :
x->-x, y—>y, z-*-z. (11-2)
Notice that our arrow is changed in Figure 8, in the same way as it

was in Figure 11.6.
Figure 11.7 The same effect of Figure 11.6 can be obtained by a rotation in
three dimensions around the axis Y'OY, by 180°.
There is a fundamental difference, however, between the trans-

formations of Figure 11.6 and Figure 11.7. This can be understood
in the following way. Consider a general transformation of two-
dimensional Cartesian axes as in the following equations:
x' = о,цх + a12y,
y' = a21x + a22y, (11.3)
where the 'a's are, in general, chosen so that the new coordinates
(x\ y') are also rectangular Cartesian coordinates. The condition for
this is that the Pythagorean rule of the distance of the point (x,y)
from the origin continues to hold for coordinates (x',y') also. That
is, for all values of (x,y), (x',y') given by (11.3)
x'2+ y'2 = x2+ y2. (11.4)
Replacing x', y' by x,y through relations (11.3), we get
(aux + a12y)2 + (a2i% + a22y)2 = x2 + y2,
i.e.
( a i i + a2i)x2 + 2(anai2 + a2la22)xy + (a\2 + a222)y2 = x2 + y2 (11.5)

If (11.5) is to hold for all x',y' then the coefficients of x2,y2 and xy
on both sides must match. This requires
a 2 i 2 -i
l l + a21 =
2 , 2 a
_ I
— 1
"12 ' 22
a
ll a 12 + a21a22 =
0- (ll-6)
Now consider the determinant of the linear transformation (11.3):
ац ai2
Д = ailO-22 ~ a21a12- (11.7)
й21 Я22
From (11.6) and (11.7), we get
A2 = ana22 + a 2i a i2 _
2ana 2 2a2iai2
= ( a ^ + a2i)( a i2 + a22) ~ а11а12 ~~ a 2i a 22 -
2ana 2 2a2iai2.
That is, using (11.6), we get
A 2 = (aji + a ^ ) ( a ? 2 + a\ 2 ) - ( а ц а 1 2 + a 2 i a 2 2 ) 2 = 1. (11.8)
In other words, Д = ±1. In the special case discussed in (11.1), we

have A = - 1 .
The 2 x 2 matrix
Л = (11.9)
is called the transformation matrix. Writing AT for the transpose of

A, it is not difficult to verify that
ATA AAT = / (11.10)
where I is the unit matrix. A matrix with this property is called an

orthogonal matrix. What we have just shown is that the determinant
of A is ±1. Also, all these properties hold for higher dimensions in
the same way: for n dimensions the matrix A is n x n.
Consider now a special case of the transformation (11.3), namely
X — X, у = у. (11.11)
This is the identity transformation and it has A = +1. Now starting

with this transformation, as we slowly turn the axes around, we are
making a continuous change in the system. Since Д is a continuous

function of the transformation coefficients, we expect it to stay at
the starting value +1, rather than jump across to - 1 . For the latter
to happen, we require a discontinuous change, which is provided by
reflection. Which is why under (1), Л = - 1 .
Notice, however, that for objects (like our arrow) confined to
the XOY plane, the transformation (11.2) has the same effect as
the reflection in (11.1), although (11.2) is a continuous rotation of
the unit matrix. In other words, what looked like a discontinuous
transformation (reflection) in two dimensions becomes part of a
continuous transformation (rotation) in higher (3) dimensions. This
is why the Mobius Strip produces a 'reflection' by turning objects
around in higher dimensions.
We can extend this idea to reflections in three dimensions. Thus,
a reflection in the mirror placed along the YOZ plane produces the
following changes:
x' = - x , y' = y, z' = z. (11.12)
For this transformation, Д = —1. It is a discontinuous change from

Д = 1, and tells us that no amount of rotation in the three-
dimensional space would change an object into its mirror image.
But now, let us add an extra space dimension to this picture.
Let W'OW be the fourth axis through О in this dimension. The
transformation
w' = —w, x' — —X, у = у, z' — z (11.13)
now has Д = +1. It can thus be obtained by a continuous rotation of

the original system! In Gamow's example, the closed universe has a
twist like the Mobius strip, which, when embedded in higher (four)
dimensions turns the object around, into its reflection.
All this may sound strange and science fictionish. How can we
continuously change into our reflections? A look at Figure 11.5 will
tell us what is involved. When the humanoid figure is turned around
from a left- to a right-handed one, we are actually looking at its 'back
side'. Only, the humanoid living in two dimensions is not aware of
the difference between front and back which calls for an appreciation
of the third dimension! Likewise, we, having three dimensions, are
unable to experience or appreciate the 'front and back' difference
with respect to the fourth dimension.
11.4 THE KLEIN BOTTLE
We end this chapter with a brief description of another bizarre

object, the 'Klein Bottle'. It cannot be actually made in our space,
but can be visualized (albeit with some difficulty!)
When making the Mobius Strip, we had identified the points С
and A as well as D and В of the rectangular strip ABCD. When we
made the strip into a closed loop, we also joined the intermediate
points of ВС diagonally across to those of AD. As shown in Figure
11.8, a point P is located at AD such that DP = / x AD, where /
is a fraction less than unity. Corresponding to P choose a point Q
on ВС, such that BQ = f x CB. In making up the Mobius Strip we
join up the points P and Q; Figure 11.8 illustrates this.
For making the Klein Bottle, we go a step further and take points
on the edges AB and CD also. Thus take a point R on AB such
that AR = / x AB. Identify it with a point S on CD such that
CS — f x CD.
Figure 11.8 Points P and Q are typical points on the edges AD and С В
joined together to make the Mobius strip. As explained in the text to make the
Klein Bottle, the typical points R and S on the edges AB and CD need to be
joined too.
If you try this exercise with a real strip, you will soon give it up as
impossible. Nevertheless, as an abstract entity such an object exists
and is called the Klein Bottle. The Mobius Strip had one edge, the
Klein Bottle has none. Also, it does not have any clear-cut boundary
that divides the space inside the bottle from that outside of the
bottle! (An edgeless surface like a sphere does have an 'inside' and
an 'outside'.) Figure 11.9 attempts to give an artist's impression of
this weird bottle.
Figure 11.9 Artist's impression of a Klein Bottle.
1. The Mobius strip has one twist. Make a similar loop of a paper
tape with two twists. Cut the tape along a line passing midway
between the edges. What do you get?
(0
Figure 11.10 Turning the torus inside out leads to an apparently impos-
sible situation! In each figure, the dotted circle is on the inner side of the
torus and the continuous one is on the outside.
2. A well-known fallacy in topology relates to the torus. In Figure

11.10(i), two circles are drawn on a hollow rubber torus — the
one inside called C\ and the other called C 2 , outside. The inside
one is dotted while the outside one is continuous: but see that
they are linked. Obviously, they cannot be 'unlinked' without
breaking somewhere. But suppose, through a small hole at A the

torus is turned inside out. The inner circle will come out and
the outer one will go in, as in Figure ll.lO(ii). Here they are
delinked. How was this made possible? Surely there is a fallacy
somewhere: find it.
3 On the question of linking/delinking, can you disentangle the

ropes tied to the two hands of persons facing each other in
Figure 11.11? You are not allowed to untie the loops around the
hands.
Figure 11.11 How do you delink the two ropes?
4. Still on the subject of linking/delinking, do you think it is possible

(see Figure 11.12) to release the cup hanging by the loop, without
cutting the loop or breaking the handle of the cup?
Figure 11.12 Can you release the cup without cutting the loop or breaking
the handle of the cup?
12
Four Colours Suffice
T ^ h e letters coming out of the Department of Mathematics in the

University of Illinois bore a franking stamp "Four colours suffice".
The year was 1977. What was the significance of this statement? To
understand and appreciate it, let us return to a topic we had briefly
encountered earlier.University of Illinois
In Chapter 10, we were introduced to the subject of topology which
deals with properties of curves, volumes and surfaces that remain
valid even under deformations like stretching, twisting, etc. That
there are such 'durable' properties at all may come as a surprise.
For, consider the area enclosed by a closed curve. Imagine, as in
Figure 12.1a, a closed loop made of rope in the form of a circle.
(a) (b) (с)
Figure 12.1 The area enclosed by a looped rope depends on the shape of the
loop. In this figure, the area decreases as we move down from (a) to (c).
If the length of the loop is L, then its radius is R = L/2-к, and

the area enclosed by the loop is A = irR2 = L2/4л. This area is
not, however, an invariant of the kind we are taking about. As, in
Figure 12.16, we have the same rope now shaped like a square, so
that each side of the square is L/4 and its area is equal to L 2 /16.
The area enclosed is thus reduced from the circle of Figure 12.1a to
the square of Figure 12.16. Indeed, if we go on stretching the loop
making it into a longer and thinner rectangle as in Figure 12.1c,

the area enclosed can be almost brought down to zero. Clearly the
area enclosed by the loop is not invariant, as the loop is given an
arbitrary shape on the plane.
12.1 INSIDE AND OUTSIDE
But there are some features which do show invariance. For example,
the problem of the seven bridges discussed in Chapter 10 did not
depend on the specific shapes or sizes of the bridges; if the sheet they
were drawn on were stretched or compressed, the basic property that
the bridges cannot be crossed once and once only, is not changed. We
revert to the loop and consider here another, more simple property,
the property of being inside the loop. No matter how we alter the
shape of the loop, it will always have an inside and an outside. That
is, it will divide all the points in the plane into two parts, one part
being inside, the other outside the loop. If, as in Figure 12.2a, we
take a point P\ inside the loop and a point P2 outside the loop, then
any line joining Pi and P2 will intersect the loop somewhere. If, on
the other hand, we have two points Pi and P2 which can be joined
by a line that does not intersect the loop anywhere, then, they either
both lie outside the loop (Figure 12.26) or inside it (Figure 12.2c).
(a) (c)
Figure 12.2 Three cases illustrating the notion of being inside or outside a
closed loop.
Does it all sound obvious? Surely, you will argue that when a
closed fence is erected to protect cattle from the predators outside,
the fence serves the commonsense purpose of separating the former
from the latter. And a wolf outside the fence, trying to get the sheep
FOUR COLOURS SUFFICE 117
inside, will have to penetrate the fence somewhere. So what is so

profound about this mathematical claim?
Well, mathematicians do not wish to leave anything to intuition
which can sometimes lead one astray, as we shall shortly see. But it
was a rigorous theorem by Jordan that really showed that a simple
closed curve (i.e., one that does not intersect itself) divides a plane
into two parts, one called the 'inside' and the other the 'outside',
where the above-mentioned properties hold good.
To show how our intuition can go wrong, consider some surfaces
which are not the infinite planes of Euclid's geometry that we have
imagined so far, but which, as in Figures 12.3a, 12.36, are more
like the surface of a doughnut. Mathematicians call such a surface
a torus. Figure 12.3a shows a curve I drawn around a torus which
divides its surface into two parts, which do separate out as in Jordan's
theorem. But what about the curves mi and m 2 of Figure 12.36?
Although each is a closed loop, yet any two points on the torus can
be connected by a line that does not cross mi or m 2 .
Figure 12.3 The property of being inside /outside or connectivity is different

for a torus surface and for a plane surface.
Clearly, there is something different between a plain sheet of

paper and the surface of a torus. One difference is in terms of the
property of 'connectivity'. If we draw a closed loop on the surface,
can we shrink it to a point while still lying entirely on the surface?
On the plane surface you can, and so such a surface is called simply
connected. On the torus you can do this for some curves, but not for
all of them. Try doing it for the loops m\ or m 2 of Figure 12.36!
12.2 THE COLOURING OF MAPS
It is against this background that we will look at an old problem

whose history dates back to 1852. In that year, a few months after he
had completed his studies at the University College, London, Francis
Guthrie wrote to his brother Frederick who was a student of the
famous mathematician Augustus de Morgan. Francis sent Frederick a
problem which neither he nor de Morgan himself could solve. Indeed
it took 124 years before the solution could be found! The problem
known as the Four-Colour Problem is easy enough to describe.
Look at any typical map in a geography atlas. If it describes a
country, it distinguishes the different parts of the country (states,
provinces, countries, etc.) with different colours, so that no two
parts sharing a common boundary have the same colour. The same
criterion is used in a world map with different nations. Again, nations
having a common boundary are shown in different colours.
Now here is the problem. What is the minimum number of colours
with which we can colour any map whatsoever? Note that the question
does not relate to a specific map. For a specific map, you can try
and work out the minimum number of colours. For a map with one
country, one colour is enough. For a map having two regions with a
common boundary, two colours are enough. The problem asks you
to imagine any system of regions distributed in all manner of ways in
the map. And you have to guarantee that with a certain minimum
number of colours you can paint all the regions of the map, so that
no two contiguous regions have the same colours.
Certain basic assumptions are to be made. First, each country has
a simple connected curve for its boundary. For example, there is no
country like what Pakistan used to be until 1971, a nation of two
disjoint regions. Also, two countries cannot have the same colour
only if they have a certain positive length of common boundary. For
example, in the following map of Figure 12.4a, A and С can have
the same colour as they have only a single point common in the
boundary. A single point has a length of zero units. Similarly, В and
D or В and E can also have the same colour.
Consider the map of Figure 12.46. It has four countries, with
country A surrounded by countries В, C, D, any of which joins with
the other two along with A. You need four different colours for A,
В, C, D. If there were a fifth country E in the map, it does not have
a boundary with A. So we can use the colour of A for colouring E.
Thus, we can still manage with four colours.
But are we sure that four colours will be sufficient to colour any kind
of map?
Figure 12.4 Here (a) and (b) are typical examples of the map colouring
problem.
This was the problem Francis Guthrie sent to his brother, a

problem that had baffled mathematicians for many decades. Notice
that it belongs to topology, for the specific areas or shapes of the
different parts of the map are irrelevant. It was possible to show,
for example, that for maps drawn on the Earth's globe or on a plain
sheet of paper, five colours are enough. But is there any map which
cannot be coloured with less than five colours? No such map can be
visualized, which therefore suggests that four colours ought to be
sufficient.
Let us emphasize here the difference between necessary and suffi-
cient. In Figure 12.4, we saw that there are maps which do require
four colours. Thus, four colours are necessary. But are they sufficient
for colouring any kind of map? On the other hand, mathematicians
could prove quite generally for any kind of map that five colours will
be sufficient. But they could not find a map which made it necessary
to have five colours.
So the situation boils down to this : either find a general proof that
four colours are sufficient for any type of map, or find a specific map
that calls for five colours. The 'four colour conjecture' represented
the belief mathematicians had that four colours would be sufficient.
As has happened with many challenging problems, people came
up with incomplete or fallacious proofs. In such a proof (see Chapter
15), there is some wrong construction or an illegal step of reasoning,
which, when discovered, vitiates the proof. However, it is often
difficult to locate the fallacy. Indeed, in 1878-79 Alfred Bray Kempe, a
barrister and member of the London Mathematical Society, published
a proof of the conjecture that four colours are sufficient. Kempe's
argument was very clever but incomplete. It is now recognized,
however, to have contained most of the ingredients of the correct

proof. The four-colour problem also had its share of fallacious proofs
till the problem was finally laid to rest in 1976 by two mathematicians
Kenneth Appel and Wolfgang Haken from the University of Illinois.
Let us now look at their approach.
12.3 COMPUTERIZED CLASSIFICATION OF M A P S
When we talk of 'any kind of map', the variety of possible con-

figurations is uncountably infinite. [See Chapter 4 for ordering of
infinities!] If we decided to apply brute-force and analyze each and
every map to see how it could be coloured, the task would be endless.
Fortunately, it is possible to use analytical methods to categorize
maps so that all the (infinite) maps in one category can be dealt
with at one go. But even these categories are large in number.
We cannot explain the procedure here in detail, as it is too
complicated. However, we can present some highlights. [For further
details, see the excellent non-technical account by Appel and Haken
in the Scientific American, October, 1977, p. 108.] The starting point
of their work was that by Kempe. In what follows, we will throughout
talk of maps of 'countries'.
Kempe began by defining a normal map as one in which no country
completely encloses some other country or countries and in which
no more than three countries meet at a point. Figure 12.5 (a-c)
shows examples of maps that are normal or not normal.
Next, Kempe introduced the notion of a lfive-chromatic map'. This
is a map that requires five colours. He was able to show that if such
a map exists, then there would also exist a five-chromatic normal
map. Evidently, if we wish to show that four colours are sufficient,
we can do so by showing that there is no five-chromatic normal map.
Further, Kempe noticed that if there is a five-chromatic normal
map, then there would be a minimal five-chromatic normal map. Any
map with fewer countries than in such a map would therefore be
colourable with no more than four colours. So, the aim of Kempe's
endeavours was to show that there is no minimal five-chromatic
normal map.
Kempe proved that any normal map must have some country
with five or fewer neighbours. He then argued that in a minimal
normal five-chromatic map, such a country must exist, and from

this he deduced that there would have to be a normal map with
fewer countries, that is also five-chromatic. If this deduction were
correct, then he had proved the four-colour conjecture, because the
above conclusion was an example of reductio ad absurdum. For, given
a minimal five-chromatic normal map, there cannot be a normal
five-chromatic map with fewer countries.
Figure 12.5 (a) shows a normal map while (b) and (c) have maps that are
not normal.
However, this is where Kempe's method proved to be incomplete.

He could show the above result for a country with 2-4 neighbours.
But his proof for a country with 5 neighbours was faulty. Appel
and Haken essentially corrected the proof by examining about 1500
arrangements of countries.
These mathematicians decided to take a step that pure mathemati-
cians, as a rule, abhor. They took recourse to electronic computers
to handle these large numbers of categories. Indeed, the University

of Illinois' IBM360 computer was used for no less than 1200 hours
to sift through all categories to check whether Kempe's basic result
held good for them. And finally they were able to demonstrate that
the four-colour conjecture is indeed correct.
As we have stated before, using number crunching by a computer
to prove a mathematical fact does not appear as elegant as a purely
analytical proof . . . at least to the traditional mathematical mind.
It is still possible that a purely analytical proof of the four-colour
problem might emerge some day.
This however, does not detract in any way from the unique way
that Appel and Haaken used to tackle the problem. It may also
be an indication that some mathematical proofs may involve going
through a large number of logical alternatives and logical steps that
are beyond the unaided abilities of the human brain. Unaided, that
is, by an electronic computer.
1. A country has an airline service between cities. For reasons of

economy every city has a service only to its nearest neighbouring
city. Thus, if city В is the nearest city to A, there will be an air
service from A to B. But this does not mean that there is an air
service from В to A, because A may not be the nearest city to
B. Show that no city will have more than six air services reaching
there.
2. A common boundary between two countries is a line of positive

length such that if you step off any point on it to an arbitrarily
short distance, then there will be some directions in which you
will encounter one country and some in which you encounter the
other. Now, the question is, can you find three countries sharing
a common boundary in this fashion? Does it seems impossible?
Try again!
3. In Figure 12.6, we have two points P and Q, situated relative to

a closed curve, which is twisted in a maze-like fashion. Point Q
is outside the curve. What about P I Is it inside or outside?
Figure 12.6 Is the point P inside or outside the closed curve?

13
Coins, Dice, Matchsticks
and All That
W hen we toss a coin, it falls down with one of its two flat sides
up. Conventionally, these are called the 'head' and 'tail'. If the coin
is properly made, it is unbiased as to how - which side up - it
falls. We can say that each of the two outcomes is equally likely.
Also, ignoring the extremely rare outcome that the coin stands on
its round edge, we are absolutely certain that it will fall either head
up or tail up.
Mathematicians attach a measure to these likely outcomes, a
measure known as probability. The probability of an absolutely certain
event is taken as one. In the above example, for the coin falling
either head up or tail up, the probability is 1. Since the heads or tails
are equally likely, we can say that the probability of heads up is 1/2
and tails up is 1/2. The two alternatives exhaust all possibilities and
they are mutually exclusive. Hence, the total probability of either of
them happening is 1/2 + 1/2 = 1.
All this is intuitively acceptable and can be easily generalized.
When a certain event can take place altogether in N modes, all
equally likely and mutually exclusive, then the probability of its taking
place in any one mode is 1 /TV. A dice marked 1,2,3,4,5,6 on its six
faces will fall with the number 4 up, with a probability of 1/6.
13.1 GAMBLER'S RUIN
Suppose a gambler enters into an agreement with a casino that he

will pay a deposit of Rs 100 for the privilege of tossing a dice.
C O I N S , DICE, MATCHSTICKS AND ALL THAT 125
If he calls the number correctly the casino will pay him back his
Rs 100 and in addition, pay him a bonus of Rs 400. If not, he
loses his deposit.
Do you think it is a fair agreement?
Suppose that the gambler calls the number 3. The probability of
his making a profit of Rs.400 is 1/6. However, the probability of his
making a loss of Rs.100 is 1 - 1/6 = 5/6 ... this being the combined
probability of the dice turning up one of the other five numbers
1,2,4,5,6.
We cannot of course predict what will happen in a particular
toss of the dice. But if the dice is tossed 600 times, we expect 100
successes for the gambler and 500 failures. So he will end up with
Rs (100 x 400 - 500 x 100) = - Rs 10,000, i.e., a loss of Rs 10,000.
Thus, the system is not fair to the gambler. Although he may be
tempted by the apparently large bonus of Rs 400, the chance of his
getting it is very low. Had the bonus been set at Rs 500, the gambler
would have ended making neither a profit nor a loss. But obviously,
no casino can survive on such rules: it has to pay for its maintenance
as well as taxes and also make a tidy profit. There must be a moral
in it somewhere!
There is an assumption made in the above calculation. Namely,
that each toss of the dice is independent of the previous tosses.
Psychologically, the gambler is often not prepared to accept this
truism. If, for example, he has been losing for several turns in
succession, he thinks that his luck would turn at the next throw
and that he would make up enough profit to wipe out his losses.
Sadly, however, the dice is 'neutral' towards its past history! The
chance of success at the next throw continues to be 1/6, as before.
(See Figure 13.1)
Figure 13.1 The dice, if tossed in an unbiased fashion will fall with any of
the six faces up — all with the same probability of 1/6.
13.2 SLIPPERY STATISTICS
When a series of independent events take place one after the other,
the probability of their joint outcome will be the product of their
individual probabilities. Thus, when a coin is tossed eight times the
probability of its turning up 'heads' on all eight occasions is
i x i x . . . ( 8 times) =
However, this prediction is made before the tosses. We cannot use

it midway through the tossing sequence. This aspect is not prop-
erly understood by the gambler in the previous example. Nor is it
understood and appreciated by the common man, as the following
example illustrates.
Mr and Mrs Agarwal believe that they will never attain 'Sadgati'
(Salvation) unless they produce a son to perform the religious rites
for them. Unfortunately, they have produced seven daughters in a
row and no son so far. A compassionate friend has told them that
the next time, it has to be a son because it was extremely rare to have
all eight daughters. He, in fact, used simple theory of probability in
statistics to show that the chance of such event taking place is only
one in 28 or 1/256. So, the hopes of the couple are again raised
when they try to have their eight child. Are they justified in their
hopes? (See Figure 13.2)
No. Because for any pregnancy, the chance of producing a male
(or female) child is just 1/2. The outcome of this pregnancy for the
attempt number 8, is in no way related to the earlier ones. Then how
do we interpret the information that the chance of all eight children
being girls is only 1/256? This information tells us that if there is
a string of eight such events (pregnancies in this case), which are
independent of each other, then the chance of having all eight girls
is 1/256. In other words, if we take a large sample of such strings
of eight events, then about 1/256 of them will have all eight girls.
Different sequences of male and female children will exist in other
strings of eight children. If the Agarwals's eighth child is a daughter,
they will be among those few people. But this does not increase
their chance of getting a son in the 8th attempt. For, so far as the
outcome of their next attempt is concerned, they are part of the
population of all couples attempting to have their next offspring, and
they all stand a 50-50 chance of having a male child. This important
point was overlooked by the Agarwals as well as by their well-wisher.
COINS, DICE, MATCHSTICKS AND ALL THAT 127
Figure 13.2 The Agarwal family; basing their hopes on wrong notions of
probability?
Lottery tickets offer another example of the law of probability. If a

million tickets of Re 1 each are sold for prize money of Rs 500,000,
and if I have bought a ticket, my chance of winning the lottery is
one in a million. Now, very few people of course, win a lottery. But
everyone enjoys day-dreaming till the result is announced. Suppose
this is a weekly lottery. How can I improve my chance of winning
a lottery? If I keep buying a ticket every week, do I have a better
chance of winning? Does my chance of winning get multiplied by
52 in the whole year? No. Each time, my chance of winning is still
1/1,000,000, at the start of each draw. At the start of the year the
total chance of my winning in one of the 52 draws is 1/1,000,000. But
if I buy 52 tickets in one week then, for that week, my chance of
winning does get multiplied by 52 to 52/1,000,000. Now people can
choose between the two alternatives of spending the same amount
of money. To have a winning chance of 52 out of a million and
day-dreaming for a week or a much smaller winning chance of 1 out
of a million and day-dreaming for the whole year!
13.3 A FAIR PRACTICE AT A FAIR?
Let us see now a clever game devised by a young man at a fair.

Everyone who plays a game of chance, likes to have at least a fifty
percent chance of winning. No organizer of the game will offer more

than that. So a game is devised with three simple coins. The first
coin is black on both sides, the second coin is black on one side and
white on the other and the third coin is white on both the sides.
Let us call these Coin I, Coin II and Coin III. They are shown in
Figure 13.3.
Side 1 Side 2
Coin I
Side 1 Side 2
Coin II
Side 1 Side 2
Coin III
Figure 13.3 The three coins with their two faces.
All the three coins are kept on a table under an opaque cover
and shuffled by the organizer without looking at them. The game
proceeds in 2 stages.
Stage 1. The player deposites the entry fee and puts his hand under
the cover and pulls out, with a finger, a coin which still lies on the
table. If the coin has a black face upwards, the game is aborted.
The coin is pushed under the cover and the organizer shuffles the
coins to start again with the same player. If the coin has a white
face upwards, then comes Stage 2.
Stage 2. Now the coin is lifted to examine its other face. If the other
face is black, the player wins and gets back double his entry fee. If
the other face is white, the organizer wins and retains the money
put down by the player.
A simple game indeed! It is easy to convince the player that the
game is played to Stage 2 only if the coin pulled out happens to be
Coin II or III. Now Coin II will let the player win and the Coin III
will let the organizer win. So the player has a fifty percent chance
of winning. Is that right? Is the deal offered a fair one?
No! It is true that the game is played on only if the Coin II or
III is pulled out. But progress from Stage 1 to Stage 2 is made only
after looking at the upward face of the first coin pulled out. So we
must consider the faces of the coins. If the second coin has its faces
numbered 26 and 2w and the third coin has its faces numbered Зги,
3w', then there are in all three white faces which allow us to to
pass to Stage 2. If the face up is 2w, the player wins and if it is
3w, or 3w', the organizer wins. So, the probability that the player
wins is only 1/3 and not 1/2. This calculation is based on the law of
conditional probability.
13.4 A TALE OF TWO DAUGHTERS
Let us now look at the problem of a mother who had two daughters
who both lived in the suburbs of a large city, 20 Km apart. The
mother lived along a bus route which connected the two places. The
frequency of the buses was once in half-an-hour in each direction.
Let us assume that the older daughter lived in the suburb A and the
younger one lived in suburb B. It was decided that every Sunday
afternoon, the mother would visit one of the daughters. She used to
set out at a randomly chosen time between 4 and 5 in the afternoon
and board the bus which came first, whichever its direction, to A or
B. (See Figure 13.4)
Now, unintentionally, it so happened that she visited the younger
daughter twice as often as the older one. So the older daughter
accused her of being partial to the younger one. The mother was
perplexed and mentioned this to a friend of hers. After a little
thought, the friend asked for the bus timetable at the bus stop
near the mother's house. When she saw it, she said "Aha! That is the
Figure 13.4 The bus-stops facing each other, for buses going to A and B.
Figure 13.5 The shaded region on the clock denotes the time when the bus
to A comes first. The rest is the period the bus to В is the first to arrive. As
you can see, the white (unshaded) region is twice as large as the shaded one.
cause of the trouble". The timetable (see Figure 13.5) said that the
buses going to A came at 5 minutes and 35 minutes past every hour
and the buses going to В came at 25 and 55 minutes past every
hour. The mother was still perplexed and requested the friend to
elaborate. The friend said, "It is easier to explain with the help of a
clock. If you reach the bus stop between 4.05 and 4.25 pm or 4.35
and 4.55 pm, you get the bus going to B. Whereas, if you reach the
bus stop between 4.00 and 4.05 pm or between 4.25 and 4.35 pm,
or 4.55 and 5.00 pm, then you get the bus going to A". The mother
looked at the figure drawn by the friend and quickly calculated. "Yes,
it is clear now! The shaded region gives the time when I arrive to
find that the bus going to A comes first and the white area gives
the time when I find that the bus to В comes first. Of course, the
probability of my going to В is twice that of going to A. Now I can
assure my daughters that I am certainly not partial."
13.5 BUFFON'S NEEDLE PROBLEM
The examples of tossing a coin or throwing up a die, talk of a

discrete number of outcomes in an experiment — two for the coin
and six for the die. We can also talk of a probability in a continuous
range of possible outcomes as in the bus problem just discussed. In
Figure 13.6 we see a square area of a 100 m x 100 m in size and
divided into two equal parts by a diagonal line.
Figure 13.6 A rectangular region on which showers of cosmic rays are mea-
sured. The probability of detection of a cosmic ray particle over any part of this
region is proportional to the area of that part.
Imagine that there are detectors all over this area, looking for
showers of cosmic ray particles coming from the sky. A typical
particle can, in principle, fall anywhere on the Earth and thus there
is a small probability of its hitting the square area. Let us suppose
that this probability is p. Now, the particle could, in principle, hit
anywhere on the square. So, if there is nothing special about any
particular part of the square, the probability of the particle falling

in one of the two parts, say the left half, is p/2. If we took a tiny
area, 1 m x 1 m, within this triangle, the chance of its being hit
is p/10 4 . In short, the probability of a particular area being hit is
proportional to the size of that area.
Now consider the following problem illustrated in Figure 13.7. We
see a large sheet of paper ruled with equidistant parallel lines. The
gap between two neighbouring lines is I, equal to the length of a
matchstick. We toss the matchstick into the air in a random fashion,
i.e., with no particular regard to where on the sheet of paper or in
what direction it falls. The matchstick will fall in an unpredictable
way. Sometimes it may cross one of the ruled lines, while at other
times it may fall in between two lines.
Figure 13.7 What is the probability of a matchstick crossing a ruled line?
What is the probability of its intersecting one of the ruled lines? Let
us try to solve this problem, which has a history attached to it, which
we will come to later. Also, the answer to the question is rather
surprising.
To answer the question, let us suppose that x denotes the distance
of the midpoint of the matchstick from the nearest ruled line. Clearly,
x can take any value between 0 and 1/2, all values being equally
likely. Let us suppose that в denotes the (acute) angle made by the
matchstick with any of the lines. Again, в can take any value between
0 and 7t/2, all values being equally likely. Let us draw a rectangle
with one side of length 1/2, and the other of length 7t/2; the former
specifying the range of x, the latter the range of в (see Figure 13.8).
Now let us ask, what is the condition that the matchstick should
intersect a line? A little playing with geometry, will tell us that the
condition is
x < ^ sin в. (13.1)
In the figure we have plotted the curve x = (1/2) sin в, to divide

C O I N S , DICE, MATCHSTICKS AND ALL THAT 133
the rectangle into two parts. The shaded region to the left of this
curve, wherein the coordinates of any point satisfy the condition (1),
represents those tosses which have the matchstick intersecting one
of the ruled lines.
Figure 13.8 The shaded part of the rectangle denotes the range of values of
x and 9 for which the matchstick crosses a ruled line.
So the probability that we are looking for is given by
Area of the shaded region

P (13.2)
Area of the rectangle
The area of the rectangle is easily obtained: it is nl/A. To find the

area a of the shaded region, we have to use elementary integral
calculus. We get
Г!2 I I
a — - s i n Ode = - . (13.3)
Jо 2 2
Therefore,
a
P (13.4)
ttI/A IX
So, suppose you toss the matchstick 1000 times and look for inter-
sections with the ruled lines. Suppose you find N such intersections.
Then N will be approximately 2000/7Г. In other words, 2000/N will
give an approximation to ж. Therefore in principle, this could be
an experimental method to estimate the mathematically important
constant 7Г.
This problem is often called 'Buflfon's needle problem', after the
work of Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon (1707-1788), a
French mathematician of great talent. He proposed the above idea
for determining 7r and actually performed the experiment by throwing
French bread sticks over his shoulder on a tiled floor, and counting
the frequency of intersections with the lines of tiles. This problem

is an example of Buffon's contribution of introducing the methods
of calculus into probability theory. Besides his mathematical contri-
butions, Buffon is also known for his 36 volume work on natural
history.
1. If two dice, each with faces numbered 1 to 6 are tossed together,

what number will you bet on for the sum of the numbers turning
up?
2. In a party there are 30 people present. The discussion moves to

the following question : "In this group are there any two people
with birthdays on the same date?" With 365 days (the year is a
non-leap year, and we assume that nobody present has birthday
on 29th February) to choose from, surely the odds in favour of
this must be small, argued Mohan who offered to enter into a
suitable bet. Manisha said that she will offer even odds that such
a pair is found. "Done!" said Mohan. "Here is my Rs 100. You
put down your Rs 100. Then we will compare notes. The winner
takes all". Manisha smiled and put down her Rs 100. Why did
she smile?
3. A chord is drawn at random into a circle. What is the probability

that its length will exceed the side of an equilateral triangle
inscribed in the circle?
4. In Buffon's needle problem, how will the probability of the needle

falling on a ruled line change if the needle length were I < d, d
being the gap between two consecutive lines?
14
Mathematics and Warfare
T h e Battle of Trafalgar, in which the British Admiral Nelson de-

feated a much larger French fleet is legendary. However, beyond its
historic significance, Nelson's strategies in this battle have a mathe-
matical interest, as was pointed out by Frederick William Lanchester,
an Englishman whose range of interests included aerodynamics, au-
tomobiles, problems of industry, relativity and war strategies. We will
explain the basic idea before returning to the details of the battle.
14.1 T H E DIFFERENCE OF SQUARES LAW
Suppose we have two opposing forces (army, navy or airforce ...

it does not matter which), called X and Y. Both have comparable
fighting technology, but X starts with x0 fighters and Y with y0
fighters, with x0 > y0. Thus, Force X outnumbers Force Y. Once
the battle begins, both start destroying each other. All other aspects
being the same, the rate at which the fighters of X are destroyed
will be proportional to Y and vice versa. Suppose we express these
numbers of fighters for X and Y at any given time t as x and y,
respectively. Then at the initial instant t = 0, x = x0 and у = y0.
The rate of destruction by Force X is Xx and by Y is Л у, where
Л is a constant of proportionality. We therefore have two simple
differential equations:
dx ,
<141)
(14 2)
ft = '
Given these equations, there is a simple deduction. Multiply (14.2)

by у and subtract it from (14.1) multiplied by x. We get
This equation can be easily integrated to give
x2 — y2 = constant = Xq — y2. (14.4)
Figure 14.1 shows how x and у change with time. Notice that the
two forces annihilate each other in such a way, that the difference
of their squares remains constant. Since we assumed at the start
that the condition that xo was greater than y0> w e will reach the
end of the battle when у has become zero. That is, x = \Jx20 — y2
at the end of the battle. For example, if xo = 50 and y0 = 40, then
after the force Y is completely annihilated, what is left of force X
is \/50 2 - 402 = 30. Thus, the force Y lost all its 40 fighters while
force X lost only 20 out of 50.
Does this sound incredible? But this is what the "difference of
squares" law states! The initial superiority of numbers tells in the end.
Does that mean that smaller forces have no hope of winning the
battle? Not quite! For, as we stated earlier, the Battle of Trafalgar
was won by Nelson with a smaller fleet. How did he manage it?
50
40
30
20
10
0
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0
T i m e in arbitrary units
Figure 14.1 A graph showing how the strengths of X and Y decline over
time.
MATHEMATICS AND WARFARE 137
14.2 A MATTER OF TACTICS
Let us continue with our example of Forces X and Y. Force Y now

changes its strategy. Through diversionary tactics it divides Force X
into two parts, one with 32 and the other with 18 fighters. It then
takes on the first lot of 32. Since now Y has 40, as against these 32
of X, the latter will all be annihilated, leaving Y with
\ j 4 0 2 - 322 = 24 (14.5)
fighters. But these are in excess of the remaining 18 of X! So in a

second combat these 18 of X will also be destroyed, finally leaving
Y with
л/24 2 - 182 ~ 15 (14.6)
fighters. The symbol ~ indicates that the square root is not a whole
number, but exceeds 15, the nearest whole number. Thus, Force Y
emerges victorious with 15 fighters intact! Figure 14.2 illustrates how
the relative decline of the two forces takes place.
40
30
X 20
§
10
0
Time in arbitrary units
Figure 14.2 By dividing the forces of X into two parts, Y can annihilate
both.
The moral therefore is to divide the enemy's more superior forces

into two parts and deal with each separately (like the old adage
"Divide and Rule"!). Of course reality may be more complicated
than the mathematical idealization. For instance, Y's forces, the
surviving 24, may be tired and wounded after the first combat, while
X's remaining component of 18 fighters is fresh and thus expected to
be more effective. Hence, the constant of proportionality Л may not
be the same for both forces. Even so, the above example illustrates
the basic principle.
We can follow this strategy further and make it more effective.
Suppose Y has split xo - the initial man power of X into two parts
- ua and vq If the initial strength of Y is y 0 then, from our above
example and the difference of squares law, we find that ultimately
Y is left with a net strength of
У = yjvl - 4 - Ч- (14.7)
The question we ought to ask here is: how do we choose щ and vq

in (14.7), so as to maximize y? Remember that we have a condition
to satisfy, viz.,
UQ + VQ- XQ. (14.8)
The answer is available with the help of a little algebra, as follows.
From (14.7) and (14.8), we get
y2 = yl - ul - vl = yl - \ ( U0 - VQ ) - i ( UQ + VQ ) .
(14.9)
2 12 —1 I —
= Уо ~~ 2(
Obviously, to get the maximum possible y, we need the maximum

possible y2 and from (14.9), given xq and yo, this maximum value is
attained if we set uq = v 0 . We then have
У max = \ j 402 - ^50 2 - 18. (14.10)
Thus, compared to a surviving force of 15 given by Eq. (14.6), this

strategy yields a slightly higher number. Instead of splitting 50 as 32
+ 18, here the split is 50 = 25 + 25.
Could we improve the situation by splitting yo also? A little algebra
will convince you that this is not the case. However, it might help
to keep a small component of y0 in reserve, bearing in mind the
tiredness + injury factor mentioned earlier.
Let us now get back to Admiral Nelson and the Battle of Trafalgar
in 1805.
Lanchester describes Nelson's memorandum of October 9 which
laid down the strategy for tackling the combined French and Spanish
fleet of 46 ships with his fleet of 40. The strategy required dividing
the enemy fleet into two parts of 23 ships each and tackling the first
half with a British fleet of 32 ships (leaving 8 in reserve). Applying
our rule above (which Lanchester calls the 'n 2 law'), we find that
the outcome of the two battles would be to leave a residual British
force of at least 19 ships, for
\ / 3 2 2 - 23 2 ~ 22; 22 + 8 = 30; \ / 3 0 2 - 23 2 ~ 19. (14.11)
Notice that Nelson got the maximum tactical advantage by dividing

the enemy fleet in two equal parts. Had he engaged the full fleet,
his own would have been annihilated, leaving about 22-23 of the
enemy's ships intact.
In the actual battle, 27 British ships engaged 33 of the enemy's,
and the details differed somewhat from those described above. Nev-
ertheless, the tactics followed were similar (see Figure 14.3).
Figure 14.3 Mathematical rules govern the conduct of naval battles like this
one.
14.3 T H E MAXIMUM LIMIT
It is clear that if tactically possible, it would help to subdivide enemy's

forces into more than two components. The situation improves as
we go on subdividing. Ideally, if the force Y could isolate and
corner each individual fighter of X, destroy and proceed further, the
difference of squares law will give a surviving force of
(14.12)
In our example, x0 = 50, y0 = 40 and hence у — л/1550 ~ 39. Thus,

Y would lose at most one fighter! Of course, in formula (14.12) we
have ignored the effect of rounding down to whole numbers. We also
require yo > y/xo, i-e., a certain minimum strength for the strategy
to work. In short, small skirmishes as in guerilla warfare are more
to Y's advantage.
There are several historical episodes supporting these ideas. In
Indian history, several Rajput kings and chieftains fought head-
on with the invading Muslim armies which far outnumbered them.
The result? All the Rajput warriors died. Although these episodes
are recalled with pride as examples of Rajput valour, they also
indicate the lack of a battle strategy. By contrast, the guerilla warfare
techniques used by the Maratha ruler Shivaji against the vast Mughal
or Bijapur armies stood him in good stead, not only guaranteeing
his survival but also his victories.
And of course when the British East India Company slowly ex-
panded its influence in India, it divided and conquered. The British
were outnumbered by the Indian rulers, be they Nawabs, Nizams,
Peshwas, Tipu Sultan or Rajput kings. Yet the Indians never came
together to avoid the y0 = u0 + v0 split! 1
1. Suppose, Nelson had not set aside a reserve force in his mem-
orandum, but gone ahead with full force in both stages of the
1
T h e 1857 war of i n d e p e n d e n c e was such a b e l a t e d a t t e m p t : it c a m e t o o late and
the technological superiority and discipline of the East India C o m p a n y proved the
decisive factors.
battle. How many ships in his fleet would have survived in the
end?
2. Suppose that Force X enjoys technological superiority over Force

Y. This may be expressed by saying that the rate of destruction
of Y is fx times the strength of X, while the rate of destruction
of X is A times the strength of Y, where, /i > A. How is the
difference of squares law modified? Take xo = yo and p = 100A.
Show that almost 99.5% of the initial strength of X survives after
the opposition is completely annihilated. This brings home the
key role of technology in warfare.
The Impossible Ones
I V I a t h e m a t i c i a n s are often asked questions which look relatively

simple, but are not so easy to answer. The famous Four-Colour
Problem described in Chapter 12 is an example. As in this case, the
question often relates to the possibility or impossibility of carrying
out an operation.
For hundreds of years, certain problems of construction in ge-
ometry have so intrigued mathematicians. Many brilliant people
attempted to solve them. Finally, with the advances in algebra in
the last century, they were proved to be impossible to solve, i.e., the
constructions envisaged were shown to be impossible to carry out.
The problems were :
1. Double a given cube

2. Trisect a given angle
3. Square a given circle
- all with the use of a ruler and a compass alone.

Figure 15.1 depicts these problems.
Note the condition given in the italic letters. Very often, people
do not realize the condition and try to invent new instruments which
will help to achieve the task; a good protractor or a wheel attached
to the compass can fairly accurately solve the second problem stated
above. Even today, we come across enthusiasts who think they have
solved one of these problems.
One should remember that the ruler is used only as a straight
edge, i.e., to join two given points or to extend a given segment of
a straight line, and the compass is used only to draw a circle of
specified radius with a given point as the centre.
That the above problems are impossible to solve is not very
THE IMPOSSIBLE ONES 143
difficult to prove and is within the reach of undergraduate students of

mathematics. Here, we shall try to fully explain the impossibility of the
first two problems and indicate how the third problem can be tackled.
(1)
1 c u b i c unit 2 c u b i c units
(2)
(3) I
Figure 15.1 At the top we see two cubes with one having a volume twice as
much as the other. Problem (1) requires a method of constructing the larger
cube, given the smaller one. The middle figure shows the smaller angle which
is one third of the larger one. Problem (2) requires a method of constructing
the former, given the latter. The third problem is to construct a square (shown
bottom right) equal in area to the circle (bottom left).
15.1 CONSTRUCTIBLE LENGTHS AND ANGLES
Using a ruler and compass alone, a high-school student learns to

bisect a given angle or a given segment of a straight line, to draw a
perpendicular through a given point to a given line, to draw a line

parallel to a given line and passing through a fixed point outside the
given line, etc. One can also inscribe a regular hexagon, equilateral
triangle, etc, within a given circle. The first part of the proof that
the problems referred to earlier are impossible to solve consists of
a complete characterization of lengths which are constructible with
ruler and compass. Let us assume that a unit length is specified.
Then given lengths a and b, one can construct lengths a + b, a — b,
a/n, a/b, ab where n is a positive integer and b Ф 0. The figures
given below indicate the methods.
To construct a + b, draw a straight line with the ruler and mark off
with the compass the distance OA = a, AB = b, so that OB — a + b.
If AB' is marked as being equal to b in length in the direction
opposite to that of OA, we get OB' = a - b (see Figure 15.2).
(a + b)
B'"
- B'
-(a-b)-
Figure 15.2 (i) shows how a + b is constructed while (ii) shows the method
for constructing a — b.
To get a/n, on a straight line mark off OA = a and through 0,

draw another straight line OCD with ОС = 1. OD = n. Then join
DA and draw through С a line parallel to DA which intersects
OA in B. Then triangles OBC and OAD are similar and hence,
OB/OA = OC/OD = l/n, i.e., OB = a/n (see Figure 15.3).
Study Figure 15.4 next. To construct a/b, let OA = a, OD = b and
ОС = 1. Join AD and draw, through C, a line parallel to AD which
meets OA in B. Then OB/OA = OC/OD = 1/6, hence OB = a/b.
T H E IMPOSSIBLE O N E S 145
Figure 15.3 The method of constructing а/п.
Figure 15.4 Construction of a/b.
Likewise, as shown in Figure 15.5, to construct a x 6 set OA = a,

OD = Ь, ОС = 1 and draw parallel to Cjfso that OB/OA =
OD/OC = b, hence OB = a x b.
Figure 15.5 The method of constructing a x b.

Thus, all rational operations with given lengths are achieved with
a ruler and compass alone. In other words, starting from the given
unit length, the field of rational numbers is constructible. Moreover,
one can also construct the square roots of constructible numbers as
follows.
In Figure 15.6, OAB is a straight line with OA = a, a > 0, AB = 1.
A semicircle is drawn with O B as the diameter and through A, a
perpendicular to OB is drawn which intersects the semicircle in D,
then ZODB = ZOAD = 90° and triangles AO AD and A DAB are
similar.
Hence, OA/AD = AD/AB, i.e., {AD)2 = a thus, AD = л/a.
Figure 15.6 A method of constructing the square root of a given length.
With the successive uses of the above operation we can draw

lengths of the type (д/13 - y/b + 2 ^ 6 ) / ( У 5 + у / 7 - у/3), etc.
On the other hand, the use of a ruler and compass can allow
only the operations specified above. The ruler basically helps to
extend a straight line and get the points of intersection of straight
lines. The compass can only draw circles and helps in getting points
of intersection of a circle with another circle or a straight line.
In this way, all points with rational coordinates in the coordinate
plane are constructible. Any straight line with equations of the type
ax + by+c — 0 (where a, b and с are rational numbers) is constructible
and any circle which has the equation x2 + y2 + 2ax + 2by + с = 0,
(where a, b and с are rational numbers) is also constructible. Also,
as we noted, the numbers which can be expressed as у/к where к
is constructible and positive, are themselves constructible. It should
be noted that the straight lines or circles whose equations are of
the above type, will yield points of intersection which have rational
numbers or constructible numbers as their coordinates.
15.2 THE PROBLEMS OF APOLLONIUS AND

ARCHIMEDES
At this point, one may state the well-known problem of Apollonius

— namely the problem of constructing a circle which touches three
given circles in a plane. There are various solutions to this problem.
The simple and straightforward but lengthy solution involves writing
down the equations of the given circles and expressing the coordinates
of the centre and the radius of the new circle in terms of the
coordinates of the three centres and the three radii. The problem
becomes simpler in some special cases when each of the given circles
reduce to straight lines, or two circles reduce to straight lines and
the third one reduces to a point (see Figure 15.7).
Figure 15.7 Two simpler versions of the Apollonius problem. In the top figure,
a circle is to be drawn touching three given straight lines СС2,Qj- In the
bottom figure, the circle is to be drawn through point C3, touching lines С\
and C2.
Among the various ways of trisecting a given angle, the one given by
Archimedes is a very simple and elegant one and does not require a
new instrument. The reader will find it interesting (see Figure 15.8).
A
О С
Figure 15.8 This ingenious method of trisecting the angle uses the ruler in a
sliding fashion, not permitted, however, in the ruler + compass constructions.
The method is due to Archimedes.
Suppose we are given an angle a, as in the Figure 15.8. Draw

a semicircle of radius r with a centre О and let angle COD = a.
Extend CO to the other side and on a ruler, mark off A and В
so that AB = r. Now place the ruler so that В remains on the
semicircle and A rests on the extended straight line CO and slide it
so that the edge of the ruler passes through D. Then it is an easy
exercise to prove that angle OAB = a / 3 . (Try proving this result!)
But the above construction does not solve the second problem
mentioned at the beginning, because we are supposed to use the
ruler only as a straight edge to join two given points or to extend
a given segment of a straight line. Here one uses the continuous
sliding of the ruler with one point on the circle and the other on a
straight line. Therefore, the use of a ruler in this solution does not
conform to those conditions.
15.3 NUMBER FIELD
So far, we have characterized all the numbers which can be con-

structed with a specified unit length and the ruler and compass alone.
They are as follows:
1. All rational numbers a/b where a and b are integers and Ьф 0.

2. Given specified lengths a and b with b Ф 0 and a non-zero integer
n, the quantities a + b, a - b, a/n, a/b and ab.
3. Any number у/к where A; is a positive constructible number.
We must now use the concept of a number field. A number field F is

a set of numbers which contains 0 and 1 and is closed under addition,
subtraction, multiplication and division by a non-zero number, where
addition and multiplication are commutative and a(b + c) = ab + ac
for any a, b, с in F. By 'closed' we mean that any operations of the
above kind on its members produces yet another member of F.
The field of all rational numbers will be denoted by Fi. If k0
is a positive rational number where y/k0 is not in F b we have
seen that у/кц is constructible and hence any number of the form
(a+by/ko)/(c+d^ko) with a, b,c,d and k0 in F b k0 > 0 and c2+d2 Ф 0 is
constructible. One can check that any number (a + by/k0/(c+dy/k0) =
A + By/k0 where A and В are in Fi and numbers which can be
expressed in this way, form a field F2 which is obtained by joining у/ко

to Fj. We can again choose к г and F2 so that k\ is positive and y/k\ is
not in F2. Then у/ki is constructible and the field obtained by joining
y / k i to F2, denoted by F3 = F 2 ( v ^ i ) = Fi(y/k[, yflb), is constructible.
This process can be repeated. Thus, we find that any field Fn =
F n - i ( y / k n - 2 ) = Fi(\/fco, y/ki, • • •, \/kn-2) is constructible and, on the
other hand, any constructible number is in such a field Fn for some
positive integer n. We are now ready to prove the impossibility of
solving the problems stated at the beginning of this article.
15.4 DOUBLING THE CUBE
Suppose we have a cube of a specified length for its side. We are

required to find a cube whose volume is double the volume of the
given cube. We may assume the side of the given cube to be the unit
length. In other words, we are required to find the side ж of a cube
so that x3 = 2. Clearly, x is not in Fi and can be proved as follows.
Suppose, that x is in Fi, and is therefore a rational, expressible as
p/q, where p and q are integers with no common factors. Then, we
have, p3 = 2q 3 , implying that p3 is even. This means that p is also
even (for, the cube of an odd number is odd). Write p as 2r, where
r is an integer. Then, we have q3 = 4r 3 , thus making q also even.
Since both p and q have 2 as a common factor, this contradicts our
earlier assumption that p and q have no common factor. Hence, x
is not a rational number.
Suppose, however, that such a length x is constructible. Then x
is in some Fn and not in F n _ i .
Let x = a + by/k, b ф О, к, a, b in Fn-i, к is positive and у/к not
in Fn-1. Then
x3 = a3 + 3 ab2k + (3a2 b + b3k)y/k = 2.
Now a,6,2,3 and к are in F n _ ! but у/к is not in Fn-But, if we
write (3a 2 b + b3k)y/k as 2 - [a3 + 3 a b 2 k ] , then the right-hand side is
in F n _ 1, but the left-hand side is not: unless both sides are zero.
Hence, 3a 2 b + b3k = 0 , that is, 3a 2 + b2k = 0. But a 2 , b2 and к
are positive and this is impossible.
Therefore, it is not possible to double the cube with a ruler and
a compass.
15.5 TRISECTING AN ANGLE
Suppose we have an arbitrary angle x with 0 < x < 90°. First, we

note that to construct an angle x is equivalent to constructing cos a:.
In Figure 15.9, Z.OAB is a right angle; and if the hypotenuse OB is
of unit length, then AB = cosx.
о
в A
Figure 15.9 The problem of trisecting the angle /.OB A.
Thus, the problem reduces to constructing cos(ar/3), if cos x is

specified. Using elementary trigonometry one can easily prove that
if x/3 = y, we have с = cos x = 4 cos 3 y — 3 cos y. Thus, we have to
construct t so that 4t3 - 3t - с = 0.
In general, such a t is not constructible. There are, of course,
exceptions. If x — 180° and с = — 1, the equation reduces to At3 -
3t + 1 = 0, which has solutions t = - 1 and t - 1/2, t = 1/2. The
latter two values correspond to у = 60°, which can be constructed.
Again if x — 90° and с = 0, t = 0, ±y/3/2 are the solutions of
the above equation and t — л/3/2 corresponds to у = 30° which is
constructible.
In general, however, it is not possible to find constructible roots
of the above equation. This follows from the following theorem:
If a cubic equation with rational coefficients has no rational

root, it does not have a root which is constructible with ruler
and compass.
This theorem can be proved in a similar way to the one explained

above. If a is a root of the cubic, and a is in Fn but not in F„_i,
then a = a + by/k where a,b,к are in F n _ b к > 0 and у/к is not in
F„_i. Then one can easily show that a — a — by/k is also a root of
the equation and the cubic can be written as C\.(x - a)(x - a)(x - (3)
where /3 is the third root of the cubic. It follows that aa(3 is rational
and hence /3 is also constructible. If /3 is in Fn for some n but /3

is not in F n _ i then, by the same argument, /3 is also a root of the
cubic and this is absurd. Otherwise, /3 is a rational number which
contradicts the hypothesis that the cubic does not have a rational
root. In either case, the assumption that the cubic has a constructible
root leads to a contradiction.
15.6 SQUARING THE CIRCLE
That the problem of squaring the circle is impossible to solve can

be shown in a very similar way. Constructing the side of a square
whose area is equal to the area of a given circle, reduces to finding
a constructible number x so that x2 = ж. The set of constructible
numbers is a subset of the set of algebraic numbers.
An algebraic number is a number which satisfies an equation

xn + aix71"1 + a2Xn~2 + . . . + an = 0 where n is a positive
integer and a 2 , . . . , a n are rational numbers.
If there exists a constructible X so that X2 — -к, then ж is also

constructible and in particular algebraic. However, 7r is already proved
to be a transcendental, i.e., a non-algebraic number. For reference,
the reader can refer to Transcendental Numbers by C.L. Siegel.
15.7 CONCLUDING REMARKS
The above arguments may appear somewhat cumbersome to those

not familiar with advanced algebra. However, we have tried to convey
the gist, which is that there are some constructions in geometry
that simply cannot be carried out with just a ruler and a compass.
These are results well known amongst the mathematical circles for
over a century, but laypersons unaware of the proven impossibility
of such exercises are sometimes tempted to try them. In some
cases, they apparently succeed and send their 'proofs' to established
mathematicians. Of course, these proofs contain fallacies, either of
logic or of construction, of the kind we discussed in Chapter 8.
The reverse situation, that of constructing something that at first
sight looks impossible, is more exciting. We end this chapter with
some construction problems involving a compass only. No rulers

permitted. The constructions are possible, so do try!
1. Without using a ruler, but using a compass only, find the midpoint
of a straight line segment.
2. Without using a ruler, but using a compass only, find the centre
of a given circle.
ш
Limitations of Mathematics
I V I a t h e m a t i c s is considered to be the most exact science. Indeed,

the theorems or 'truths' of mathematics are unequivocal, accurate
and independent of place, time or the person who advocates them.
There is no place for contradictions in this subject. Yet, when the
branch of set theory was invented to give a formal base for the
structure of mathematics, some contradictions were discovered. We
have already seen some examples of contradictions or paradoxes as
they are called, in Chapter 6.
16.1 PARADOXES
Consider another paradox, known as Richard's paradox. To describe

it, partition of all positive integers into two sets. One set is of integers
which can be described in less than or equal to a hundred letters
of the English language, in some way or the other. The other set
is of integers which cannot be described in less than 101 letters. If
the first set is A and the other set is B, it is easy to see that A
and В are mutually exclusive and span the whole set of all positive
integers. All integers must belong to either A or to B.
For example, the number 'forty seven' is described in eleven letters
if we count the gap as a letter. How many numbers then, can be
described in less than or equal to a hundred letters? Their number,
of course, is less than or equal to 27 100 ! For, each of the 100 places
can be taken by one of the 26 letters of the alphabet, plus a gap.
So, the set В is not empty. Consider m as the least integer in set
B. Then m is 'the least integer which cannot be described in less
than a hundred and one letters'. But this sentence has 82 letters
including gaps, i.e., its description needs less than a hundred letters!
So, we cannot unequivocally say either that m is describable in less
than 101 letters or that m is not describable in less than 101 letters.
This is an example of the excluded middle! One cannot say that m
is either in A or in B. Each number is not totally black or totally
white, some may be grey.
Another well-known paradox which we discussed in Chapter 6 was
proposed by Bertrand Russell about the village barber. There was
only one barber in the village and he decided to shave those men,
and only those men, who did not shave themselves. Now does he
shave himself or not? If not, then by his own rule he must shave
himself. If he shaves himself, then by his own rule he cannot shave
himself. It cannot be ascertained if the barber shaves himself! [There
is of course, no paradox if the barber is a woman!]
Look at one more paradox of Grelling and Nelson. A word is
polysyllabic if it uses more than one syllables. The word 'polysyllabic'
itself is polysyllabic, but the word 'monosyllabic' is not monosyllabic.
We decide to call the words which do not describe themselves as
heterological. Thus, the word X is heterological if the word X is
not itself X. The word 'monosyllabic' is heterological. Now, what
about the word 'heterological'? If it is not heterological then it is
heterological and if it is heterological then it is not heterological!
The paradoxes above arise because of the confusion between a
class of objects and the class itself being an object in the class.
Mathematicians like Zermelo, Fraenkel, Von Neumann, etc., decided
that the types of sets to be considered must be restricted. Von
Neumann made a distinction between classes and sets. The set of
all sets for example, does not make sense in formal set theory. The
consistency of the axiomatized set theory is therefore preserved. The
French mathematician Poincare has remarked,
We have put a fence around the herd to protect it from

the wolves but we do not know whether some wolves were not
already within the fence.
16.2 GODEL'S THEOREM
In 1930, a young logician named Kurt Godel proved a very funda-

mental yet unexpected result about arithmetic, that is, about the
LIMITATIONS OF MATHEMATICS 155
system of integers, which is very basic and elementary. It was believed

that theorems of arithmetic are logical 'truths' and that all statements
about integers can be, in principle, proved or disproved. Godel's
work questioned this belief and it came as a rude shock to the
community of mathematicians.
To understand this work, we must look at a couple of definitions.
A mathematical system is 'consistent' if any statement or a theorem
proved in it is 'true'. In other words, a false statement like 2 = 3
should not be provable. On the other hand, the system is 'complete'
if every reasonably framed statement can be proved or disproved.
It was believed that the arithmetic system, developed over hundreds
of years, is consistent as well as complete. But Kurt Godel proved
that if the system is consistent it cannot be complete. In other words,
there are 'true' statements which cannot be proved or disproved in
the given system.
One way to prove this result is to show that the number of
proofs available is 'enumerable', whereas the true statements are
not countable or enumerable and are 'more' than enumerable. In
Chapter 4 we encountered various infinities, of which the simplest
one is the countable one. A set having its members in one-to-one
correspondence with the set of positive integers [1, 2, 3, ...] has
countably infinite members. There are, however, 'bigger' infinities
for sets whose members are not countable. Can the number of true
statements be so large as to be uncountable?
Another way is to obtain a true statement which in effect says:
"I am unprovable". Now, if this statement, denoted by S cannot be
proved, then Godel's theorem is proved. If the statement is proved,
then it is a false statement and the system is not consistent. This, of
course, is a very crude way of giving an idea of the argument. The
actual proof of Godel's theorem is quite complicated and uses the
terminology of mathematical logic.
In any case, among inconsistency and incompleteness, inconsistency
is more dreaded and cannot be tolerated. Hence, we can at best say
that our arithmetic system is incomplete. There are reasonable and
true statements in it which 'cannot' be proved.
16.3 SOME FAMOUS CONJECTURES
Godel's theorem creates a certain ambiguity regarding many

conjectures which will keep mathematicians busy for years. Let us

look at some of them.
The most well-known theorem which hundreds of mathematicians
tried to prove is Fermat's last theorem. It was written in the margin
of Fermat's book without a proof. It is as follows:
The equation
xn + yn - zn
has no non-trivial integer solutions (x, у, z) if n is an integer bigger
than 2.
The case n = 2 is of course encountered in schools through the
famous theorem of Pythagoras about the sides of a right-angled
triangle. We know that triplets like (3,4,5) with 3 2 + 4 2 = 5 2 are called
Pythagorian triplets. There are an infinity of such triplets which are
solutions of x2 + y2 = z2. In fact, for any integers a and b,
x = (a 2 — b2), y = 2ab, z = (a 2 + b2)
is a solution of x2 + y2 = z2. It was not at all obvious why solu-

tions of xn + yn = zn do not exist for n bigger than 2. For years,
mathematicians struggled to give a proof. The branch of algebraic
lumber theory was developed mainly for this purpose. Finally in
1995, mathematician Andrew Weil with the help of a few others
produced a proof of this theorem. The proof is quite involved and
proceeds through several intricate stages.
Interestingly, in the margin of his book Fermat had stated that
he had a proof of this theorem, but it was too long to be given in
the margin. It is not known, what his proof was; certainly it could
not have been anything like the modern proof. It should be noted
that before the correct proof arrived on the scene, several fallacious
proofs had been offered by many mathematicians (as well as by
cranks, of course).
The four-colour problem described in Chapter 12 in the topology of
the plane, is another such problem. We suppose that there are a finite
number of countries on the surface of the globe and their boundaries
are simple connected curves. Two countries are neighbours if they
have a common boundary of positive length. How many colours are
needed to colour the map if no neighbouring countries are to have
the same colours? It has been proved long ago that five colours
suffice for the job. Examples of many maps suggested that not more
than four colours are needed. It is easy to see that for many maps,
at least four colours are needed. So, are four colours sufficient for
LIMITATIONS OF MATHEMATICS 157
the purpose? Finally in 1976-77, Appel and Haken proved that this
conjecture is correct. They used many hours of computer time to
analyse some 1500 special configurations before they arrived at their
proof.
Goldbach's conjecture in number theory says that any positive
even integer greater than 2, is a sum of two odd primes. Like 14
= 9+5, 36 = 29+7, etc. Even this simple-looking conjecture is not
yet proved. The theorem coming nearest to the conjecture says that
any even integer = px + p2 or pi + р2рз where pi,p2 and p3 are odd
primes.
Another conjecture is as follows. Define an operation P as P(n) =
nj2 if n is even, and p(n) = 3 n + l if n is odd. Now if m is any positive
integer, then after a finite number к of repeated operations P on it,
we will get 1. In other words, Pk(m) = P((...k times (m))...) = 1. For
example, take m=23. We get P{23) = 70. Next, P{70) = 35,P(35) =
106, P(106) = 53,P(53) = 160,P(160) = 80,P(80) = 40,P(40) =
20, P(20) = 10,P(10) = 5, P(5) = 16,P(16) = 8,P(8) = 4,P(4) = 2,
and finally, P(2) = 1. Sometimes the up-and-down P-cycle is quite
long, but it eventually leads to 1. Is this always the case?
This conjecture yet remains to be proved.
There are indeed many conjectures, which may become theorems
if proved. But who can tell the status of all these conjectures? Are
they provable at all, or do they remain in that 'unattainable' section
of truths which simply cannot be proved in our system of arithmetic?
Or are they really false and not true anyway?
It is precisely these unsolved problems that make the subject so
challenging. Some of them open up new fields for mathematics and
make the subject dynamic, interesting and inviting.
16.4 EPILOGUE
Here we end our ramblings through this remarkable world of math-

ematics. Our purpose was to take excursions out away from the
standard textbook style maths which is often presented as a rather
intimidating subject, and instead bring to the reader the recreational
aspects of the subject. Indeed, as these glimpses show, beneath the
amusing or intriguing, seemingly simple issues, there are deep truths
of fundamental significance.
We hope that the enjoyable 'fun' aspects of the subject presented

here will tempt some of you to want to know more about those
deeper fundamentals of mathematics.
We end this account with an assortment of problems to test your
reasoning power. The problems are given in the next chapter and
their solutions (or hints towards solutions) follow in Chapter 18.
This final chapter also contains solutions or hints to problems posed
in the previous chapters.
Have fun!
17
Assorted Problems
H ere are a few problems and puzzles for you to test your skill.
Answers or hints to solutions are given in the last chapter. The
problems are of varying degrees of complexity, ranging from the
almost trivial to those requiring hard work. Of course, we will not
tell you which are which!
1. The village chess champion was invited to play against two visiting
chess masters. He lost to both of them and was feeling very
inadequate, when his nine year old daughter said: "Daddy ... you
need not have lost both games! I can do better than what you
managed." "You? But you barely know the rules of the game!"
Yet the girl insisted on playing. As the masters were still around,
the father persuaded them to take up the girl's challenge. They
agreed. And lo and behold! The girl did perform better than her
father. How did she manage it?
2. A Spiral path winds upwards like a right-handed screw (See
Figure 17.1) around a tall, conical hill. A motorist with a very
Figure 17.1 The winding path going round and up the hill is shown by
a shaded band.
accurate odometer (instrument for measuring distances travelled)

found that the distance travelled in going uphill was slightly
longer than for returning downhill. You are told that the hill is
either in Canada or in Britain. Can you tell in which country it
is?
3. A long-distance runner went from town A to town B, leaving A
at 8 am and reaching В at 8 pm. The next day he left В at 7 am
and reached Л at 9 pm. His speed either way was not constant.
He even rested at a few places. Show that there was a place
between A and В through which he passed at the same time on
both journeys. (See Figure 17.2.)
Figure 17.2 The path of the long-distance runner.
4. Suppose you are a bus driver and your bus leaves station A for
station B. In between there are 5 stops. The bus has a capacity of
40, but started from A with 20 passengers. The following numbers
give the details concerning the passengers alighting from and
boarding the bus at intermediate stops:
Alighting : Stop I : 0, Stop II : 7, Stop III : 14, Stop IV : 6,
Stop V : 4
Boarding : Stop I : 10, Stop II : 6, Stop III : 3, Stop IV : 0,
Stop V : 0.
From this information, find answer to the question: What is the
age of the bus driver?
5. In Figure 17.3, you see a cube with two diagonals of adjacent faces
meeting at one vertex. Find the angle between the diagonals.
6. The combined age of Ram and Shyam is 24 years. Ram is twice
as old as Shyam was when Ram was half as old as Shyam will be,
when Shyam will be thrice as old as Ram had been when Ram
had been thrice as old as Shyam had been. How old is Ram?
ASSORTED PROBLEMS 161
Figure 17.3 What is the angle Z.YXZ?
7. A person was asked at a party, how old he was. His reply was
rather cryptic: "I was 15 the day before yesterday, and will be
18 next year." Can you explain how this is possible?
8. You have twelve coins, of which one is counterfeit: it weighs dif-
ferent from a genuine coin, whether more or less, we don't know.
You are given scales for weighing one set of coins against another.
With three weighings can you identify the counterfeit coin?
9. You have two ropes which are non-uniform in cross-section. Each
of them take one hour to burn, when lit from one end. Using
both the ropes how will you determine a time period of forty-five
minutes?
10. A commuter goes up a moving escalator from bottom to top in
30 seconds, if she stands still on a step. If she walks up at her
normal speed it takes her only 12 seconds to reach the top. How
long will she take to go up the same escalator if it is stationary?
11. Four runners are stationed at the four corners of the square
ABCD, shown in Figure 17.4. They start running at the rate of
Figure 17.4 The paths followed by the runners will curve as they all begin
to run.
10 km per hour. The runner at A runs in the direction of B,

that at В runs towards the runner at C, the runner at С runs
towards the runner at D, and the runner at D runs towards the
runner at A. If the side of the square is 100 metres in length,
when will the runners all meet?
12. Two trains leave at the same time from stations A and В re-
spectively, towards each other. Each has a speed of 100 km per
hour. The distance between A and В is 250 km. A fly travelling
at 150 km per hour starts from the engine of the train leaving
station A, moves towards the other train and when it reaches its
engine, starts back towards the engine of the first train. Again, it
reverses its motion on reaching that engine. It continues the back
and forth journey between the engines until the trains cross each
other. How much distance will the fly have travelled altogether?
13. A man working on the second floor of a 20-storey building was
used to taking a lift to the top (20th) floor where there was
a lunch room. He frequently found that the lift arrived at the
second floor from the wrong direction, i.e., it was moving down.
When he was promoted and moved to the 19th floor he had
another problem. At the end of the day he was always in a hurry
to go down; but the lift would generally arrive going up, again
in the wrong direction. If the lift was moving up and down the
whole building all the time why did it seem to move erratically
in the above fashion?
14. A soldier has a rifle which is 1 m long. However, the baggage
rules of the plane he is to travel on forbid any item with any of
the dimensions (length / breadth / height) exceeding 60 cm in
length. How can he take the rifle? (See Figure 17.5.)
15. Three men А, В, С and their pet monkey were travelling back
from a fruit fair with a bag of mangoes which they had purchased
there. They rested for the night under the open sky. While the
rest were asleep, A got up and divided the lot of mangoes into
three equal portions, keeping one for himself. He found that one
mango was left, which he threw towards the monkey which had
just woken up. Then A went to sleep. Later В woke up and did
the same with the lot that was left over, dividing it into three
equal portions (of which he took one) and finding one left over
which he gave to the monkey. And after В went to sleep, С woke
up and repeated the exercise. In the morning, they all woke up
and proceeded to divide the remaining mangoes into three equal
ASSORTED PROBLEMS 163
portions. Again one was left, which they gave to the monkey.
Now the question is, what is the least number of mangoes with
which this can be done?
Figure 17.5 How can the rifle fit inside the box?
ш
Hints and Solutions
I n this last chapter, we will offer solutions to the problems posed in

the various chapters including Chapter 17 which has an assortment
of brain teasers. In some cases, we will offer hints for a solution,
rather than the full solution itself.
In what follows, the problems are identified by their chapters and
serial numbers.
18.1 CHAPTER 1
PROBLEM 1 There may be several ways of getting to the answer.

Here is one solution in each case.
(i) 516 = 4! x 4! - 4I/.4 (ii) 641 = (4 4 + .4)/.4

(iii) 3624 = [4!/.4]^ + 4! (iv) 2187 = 4!/(.^4 x .уД x .y/4).
PROBLEM 2 This is for you to try out and see for yourself!
PROBLEM 3 As you will realize, there is really no upper limit! For

example, if you start placing the factorials one after the other, e.g.,
4!,4!!,4!!!, etc.,
then you can construct arbitrarily large numbers. Further, you can
place them as a power index, e.g.,
(4!)^4!\ (4!)(4!)(4!>, etc.,
thus making them even larger.

HINTS AND SOLUTIONS 165
18.2 CHAPTER 2
PROBLEM 1 The chosen number can be written uniquely in a binary

notation. Suppose the number chosen is 23. Then
2 3 = 16 + 4 + 2 + 1 = 10111.
Now the five cards carry the numbers 1,2,4,8,16 respectively, in

their top left-hand corner. The number 23 will appear in all except
the fourth card, corresponding to the zero in the fourth place in the
binary version of 23. So all the guesser has to do is add those numbers
after the cards have been identified as containing the number to be
guessed.
PROBLEM 2 The result in binary notation is simply this: If p is a

prime, then the number
l l . . . l l ( p - 1 times)
is divisible by p.
18.3 CHAPTER 3
PROBLEM 1 Suppose the radius of the Earth is R and the gap

between the belt and the Earth's surface is h. Then the circumference
of the Earth is 2irR, whereas the length of the belt is 2ir(R + h).
The difference between the two lengths is 15 m, i.e.,
2тг(R + h)~ 2тгR = 2тrh = 15 m,
giving the gap measured in metres as
h = 15/2ТГ ~ 2.4.
So a human being can stand comfortably in the gap! Notice that

we unconsciously compare h with R and find it to be small. But R
does not figure at all in the final answer.
PROBLEM 2 Let us compute the annual earnings for the two jobs.
For Job I, the salary paid at the end of Year 1 Rs 100,000

For Job II, the amount paid after the first 6 months . . . Rs 50,000
the amount paid after the next 6 months Rs 55,000
And so, the amount paid at the year-end Rs 105,000
So Job II fetches a higher amount after one year. But what about
the higher increment of Job I? Would it not be effective at the end
of the next year? Let us see! After the second year is over, Job I will
fetch Rs 120,000. On the other hand, Job II will get you Rs 60,000
+ Rs 65,000= Rs 125,000. In fact, you will find that Job II is always
advantageous. Although an increment of Rs 20,000 per annum looks
more attractive than Rs 5,000 per half annum, the fact is that the
latter adds in two steps and so in fact gives more.
Figure 18.1 The three volumes /-/// are stacked left to right in a library shelf.
Now read the solution to Problem 3.
PROBLEM 3 This is a tricky one. While we have to read all three

volumes if we wish to start from the first page of Vol I to the last
page of Vol III, the worm does not have to do so! For the way they
are stacked in the shelf (see Figure 18.1), only Vol II lies between
the first page of Vol I and the last page of Vol III. So the worm will
take only one week.
PROBLEM 4 The best way to solve the problem is from the end.
Notice that the figures (3 of them) pulled down for the last step in
the division must be noughts. So, if we ignore the decimal point, the
divisor XXX has a multiple of the form X000.
Now try different possibilities to arrive at the final answer:
6.25) 6.3 (1.008

6.25
5000
5000
PROBLEM 5 You have to try a few alternatives that work. For ex-
ample, M occurs in the highest place of the sum and so it can only
be 1. The О therefore cannot be 1. It can be 0 or 2. You can then
rule out 2, keeping in mind that you have M from MORE, equal to
1, and S cannot be zero. And so on. The solution is unique and is
given by
9 5 6 7
10 8 5
1 0 6 5 2
PROBLEM 6 The salesman had to divide the number 13 into three

parts so that their product was equal to the number of the house.
Now in general, this will have a solution by trial and error. For
example, if the number of the house was 48, then the answer would
be 2, 3, 8. For, from all the prime factors of 48 = 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 3, we
can construct the set of three factors as follows: [1, 2, 24], [1, 3, 16],
[1, 4, 12], [1, 6, 8], [2, 2, 12], [2, 3, 8], [2, 4, 6], [3, 4, 4]. Of all
these triplets, only the triplet [2, 3, 8] has members adding up to
13. So, if the house number had been 48, the salesman would have
got the solution right away: he would not have asked for additional
information.
As it is, he was not able to get the answer at the first try. Which
meant that the house number was such that there were two or more
solutions possible. To find the number, we have to partition the
number 13 into three parts such that there are at least two triplets
that multiply out to the same number. A little exercise will show
that there is only one such case and the triplets are [2, 2, 9] and
[1, 6, 6]. So if the house number were
2 x 2 x 9 = 1 x 6 x 6 = 36.
then the salesman would not know whether the three daughters'
ages were 2, 2, 9 or 1, 6, 6. The housewife realized his difficulty and
supplied the additional information that 'her eldest daughter takes

piano lessons'. The key phrase here has nothing to do with piano
lessons: it has to do with there being an 'eldest' daughter. This picks
out he correct triplet of ages, namely [2, 2, 9]. The house number
is, of course 36.
PROBLEM 7 This is typical of the confusion caused by adding figures

to the wrong side of the ledger! The three diners together gave
3 x 100 = 300 rupees to cover the bill of Rs 250. The change received
was Rs 50. The waiter got Rs 20 and the diners Rs 30. So we
have Rs 50 = Rs 30 + Rs 20. The calculation presented in the
problem should really read like this. Each diner spent Rs 90, since
he received Rs 10 back against Rs 100 paid. So the total expense
was Rs 3 x 90 = Rs 270. This covers the bill and the tip to the
waiter, i.e., Rs 270 = Rs 250 + Rs 20. In short, one should subtract
Rs 20 from Rs 270 to get the bill amount. There is no justification
in adding it to Rs 270 as was done in the problem.
18.4 CHAPTER 4
PROBLEM 1 The number of moves needed to transfer n discs from

one peg to another is easily seen to be 2" - 1. Try proving this result
as follows. Let the number of moves needed for n discs be M(n).
Suppose there are n + 1 discs. We take M(n) moves to shift the
top n discs to another peg. Next we shift the remaining (and the
largest) disc to the third peg. We then shift the n discs onto this
disc, taking another M(n) moves in the process. Thus, in all we have
taken 2M(n) + 1 moves, i.e.,
M ( n + 1) = 2 M(n) + 1.
Now use mathematical induction (or a direct method) to prove

the result. Using the log-tables you can evaluate 2 64 approximately
as 1.8 x 1019. That many seconds will make approximately 6 x 1011
years. This is about 50 times the age of the universe as estimated
by the big bang cosmologists!
PROBLEM 2 Divide the available area on the Earth, 150 million sq

km by 1 sq m, to get a figure of 150 million ( = 1.5 x 10 14 ). The
present population is taken to be 6 x 109, and let Y be the number

of years for it to grow to the above figure. Taking a 2% rate of
growth, we use the exponential function to get
6 x 109 x ехр(0.02У) = 1.5 x 10 14 .
This gives exp(0.02Y) = 2.5 x 104. Again, using log tables, we

can calculate the answer to be approximately 500 years. Not a lot,
considering the long history of mankind!
PROBLEM 3 Suppose the typical point in a unit square is described

by two Cartesian coordinates (x, у), with both the coordinates lying
in the interval (0,1). Let these be given by:
x = 0.ai a 2 a 3 ..., у = 0.6i6 2 6 3 ....
Now write a new number in the range 0 < z < 1 as follows:
z = 016102620363....
Clearly, given any (x, y) pair we can construct a unique z, and

likewise, given a z, we can generate a unique pair x, y. This one-to-
one correspondence guarantees that the magnitudes of the infinities
of the two sets are equal.
PROBLEM 4 The 'paradox' if any, arises here in not recognizing that

the series of gaps between the hare and the tortoise, although infinite,
converges in finite time. That is, the time during which the tortoise
is ahead of the hare is finite, as can be seen from the following
example. Suppose the hare runs ten times as fast as the tortoise. At
the start, the tortoise is at a distance of A ahead. When the hare
reaches the spot where the tortoise started from, the tortoise would
have moved a distance Д / 1 0 ahead. If the hare took time T to cover
the earlier gap Д, it will now take T/10 to cover the next one, by
which time the tortoise will have moved a distance Д/100 ahead.
Thus, the hare will progressively take shorter and shorter periods,
in geometric progression to make up the gaps:
T T T
T, —, , , ,... to infinity
' 10 100 1000 10000
The sum of all these terms is, however, finite, and equal to 10T/9.
After this period, the hare will draw ahead.
PROBLEM 5 We suggest that you try to solve this one using the
technique used in the preceding problem.
18.5 CHAPTER 5
PROBLEM 1 You can carry out a counting exercise similar to that

in the text of this chapter and find the answer. We give the answer
for you to check against: There are 27 shortest triplets and 18 along
diagonals of squares in the planes X- constant, Y=constant and
Z = constant.
PROBLEM 2 Rather than get bogged down in visualizing the various

sections of the hypercube, we suggest that you use the general
coordinate-based method to work out the answer. For example, in
a hypercube with coordinates (X, Y, Z, W), the shortest triplet will
have three of the four coordinates with the same values, whereas
the remaining coordinate has a different value. Now if we identify
the three coordinates as X, Y, Z, they can take altogether 27 values.
Thus, there are 27 triplets along which only W varies. Likewise,
there are 27 triplets for each of the other coordinates, thus making
a total of 108 shortest triplets. Next, we shall look at the number
of triplets in the planes X = constant and Y=constant, with both
Z and W varying. There are only 2 such possibilities (representing
the diagonals of the Z-W square). Likewise, we can choose any
two of the four coordinates to be constant, the number of such
possibilities (of choosing any 2 out of 4) is 6. Since each chosen
pair of coordinates can take 3 x 3 = 9 values, we have altogether
9 x 6 x 2 = 108 such diagonals. Next, we have diagonals of cubes given
by keeping one of the four coordinates constant. Since a cube has 4
diagonals, and there are 3 possible values the chosen coordinate can
have, we have 4 x 4 x 3 = 48 such diagonals. Finally, the hypercube
itself has 8 diagonals. Thus, we have altogether 108,108,48,8 triplets
of increasing length, making a total of 272.
18.6 CHAPTER 6
PROBLEM 1 The prisoner realized that he had got a chance of

tying the judge in a logical knot. He should answer: "Sir, I would

rather be shot." Now if that is correct, then according to the judge's
stipulation, he has to be hanged. But then it means that he did not
guess correctly; in that case he has to be shot, which is again a
contradiction.
PROBLEM 2 The arrangement is in fact unworkable. For example,

if the hanging was to be carried out within a day instead of seven
days, the Vizier would know right away that he is to be hanged the
next day. His argument uses the method of induction on the number
of days left from the last date of hanging. The interesting aspect
of this argument is, that if the King decides to hang the Vizier on
the third day, say, there is no way the Vizier would know about it
in advance. The knowledge that he would be hanged the next day
can come to him only on the penultimate day. So the success of his
argument rests upon his convincing the King that hanging is ruled
out on the seventh day. This effectively brings the last date closer
by one day. And then the argument can be carried on in a similar
manner bringing the last date progressively closer.
18.7 CHAPTER 7
PROBLEM 1 He should ask the following question by pointing to

one of the roads he has not come on: "If I asked your sister whether
this is the road leading to Y, will she say 'yes' or 'no'?" Now suppose
the sister he happened to address is the one that speaks the truth. If
the road indeed leads to Y, the liar will not say 'yes', and the other
will correctly report this as 'no'. However, what reply will he get if
he happened to ask this to the liar? First, the liar's sister would have
told the truth and said 'yes'. However, the liar would reply that she
would say 'no'. So, in either case, the answer would be 'no', and the
tourist should take that road as the road to Y. If he points to the
other road (to Z), he would get the answer 'yes'. So, he should not
set off on that road.
PROBLEM 2 This is typical of several such problems, wherein only

the correct solution is consistent with all the stated facts. Let us
recount these facts, with the names abbreviated to initials:
(i) The Chairperson is a lady and unmarried.

(ii) The President and Treasurer are men.
(iii) A and E being twins, cannot be husband and wife.
(iv) С s husband is the brother of the Treasurer.
(v) The President and the Secretary are of opposite sexes and
not brother and sister.
(vi) В is not the President or Secretary.
From (ii) and (v) we deduce that the Secretary is a lady. Since
she is unmarried, she cannot be C. From (vi) we see that В is also
not the Secretary. So the Secretary has to be A. Since A is to marry
the President and her brother is E, the only other male D must be
the President. So E has to be the Treasurer. Since С is married, she
cannot be the Chairperson. As A is the Secretary, the only remaining
portfolio, that of Vice-President, must belong to C. Hence, В is the
Chairperson.
PROBLEM 3 Select a fruit from the bag labelled 'mangoes and

apples'. This bag, by definition, must contain either apples only or
mangoes only. The fruit that you pull out will decide which it is.
Suppose you pull out a mango. Then that bag should have the
correct label 'mangoes'. Now, which of the remaining two bags has
only apples? It is clearly not the bag labelled 'apples'. So it has to
be the bag labelled 'mangoes'. The third bag, labelled 'apples', will
have both mangoes and apples.
PROBLEM 4 We will refer to the persons by their initials. The wives

are thus, D, E and F, while the husbands are А, В and C. From
what has been given, we can make these deductions:
First, we note that D is not vl's wife. So she is the wife of either
В or C. Suppose, she is C's wife. Then she has to partner B. But
we already know that she partnered A. So she cannot be C's wife
and, by elimination, she has to be the wife of B. Since A danced
with D, he cannot be F's husband (for F's husband danced with
E). Again, by elimination, A has to be the husband of E. Thus, the
couples are: Albert + Emily, Bob + Dora and Cedric+Fiona.
PROBLEM 5 Let us first note that the lawyer is in the middle of one
row, and Apte is also in the middle of a row. Could these rows be
the same? If so, then, we must have
Apte = lawyer, Chordia = doctor Desai = engineer.
But this arrangement does not work. For, we are told that Borade
lives opposite the restaurant owner and, in the above case, neither
Borade or the restaurant owner are on Apte's side. So the lawyer's
row must face Apte's row, with Apte facing the lawyer. There are still
two possibilities: (1) Chordia faces the Doctor and Desai faces the
Engineer, or the other way round, i.e., (2) Desai faces Chordia and
the doctor faces the engineer. Now where should the professor be?
He can't be Desai, because then he would not have an accountant for
a neighbour. If Chordia is the professor, Apte will be the accountant
and live opposite the lawyer. Use the other conditions to rule out this
possibility. In particular, you cannot place Borade anywhere. Thus,
the professor can only be Apte, with Chordia being the accountant.
So, we have definitely:
Apte = professor Chordia = accountant.
Next, we decide between the two possibilities mentioned above.

Take the possibility (2) first. Chordia, the accountant, faces Desai; the
doctor faces the engineer; while the lawyer faces Apte the professor.
But again we have the difficulty of locating Borade opposite the
restaurant owner in this scheme. So we consider the possibility (1),
with Desai facing the engineer and doctor facing Chordia. We are
now able to identify Desai as the restaurant owner and Borade as
engineer. So:
Desai = restaurant owner Borade = engineer
Since Erande is at a corner, the only occupation left for him is

that of the doctor. Then, by elimination, Falke is the lawyer. So:
Erande = doctor Falke = lawyer
PROBLEM 6 Again we will refer to the persons by their initials. We

have to find the statement that is not consistent with the rest of
the statements, provided the rest are consistent amongst themselves.
Thus, if we examine the set of four statements together, we find
that В and E are not consistent, and so cannot form a part of
four consistent statements. Suppose E is telling a lie. Then D ate
the rasagulla. This is inconsistent with the remaining statements,
especially with what С has said. For, both D and E cannot be
culprits. On the other hand, if В is telling a lie, then D did not eat
the rasagulla. Nor did В or A. Thus C's statement, which identifies

E as the culprit, is not contradicted. So Bhaswati was lying and the
rasagulla was eaten by Ekalabyo.
PROBLEM 7 This is an extension of the three-pundit problem. The

cleverest pundit would argue, that if his tilak were white, then the
other three pundits are each seeing two red tilaks each amongst
themselves, which is as in the three-pundit problem. So the cleverest
amongst them would have reasoned out the correct answer. The fact
that they are confused, therefore, implies that his own tilak is not
white, i.e., it is red.
18.8 CHAPTER 8
PROBLEM 1 This is a very subtle fallacy! When the mean value

theorem is proved, the quantity в is not necessarily continuous. When
h tends to zero, it does so continuously, i.e., through all the values
in the neighbourhood of zero, whereas 9h can do so in a 'jumpy',
discontinuous manner. For, the theorem does not guarantee that 9(h)
is a continuous function of h. So the conclusion of the continuity of
f'(x) derived here is not justified.
PROBLEM 2 The length of a curve in general can be defined, if

it does not have too many points of discontinuity of direction. In
the staircase problem, for any finite-sized steps, one can define the
length, and it will be 2a. However, if we seek to define the diagonal
as a limit of this staircase as n becomes infinite, it will have infinite
number of points where the derivative is not defined. This 'curve' is
therefore not the same as the standard straight-line diagonal of the
square, which has a continuous and constant derivative. Hence, the
lengths of the two do not match.
18.9 CHAPTER 9
PROBLEM 1 This problem requires you to imagine that the walls

are opened out and laid side-by-side to provide a plane surface
containing the spider and the fly. Now this can be done in several
ways, as seen in Figure 18.2.
SF = 17m S F = УзТО m SF = >/269m
Figure 18.2 The walls can be opened out in the three different ways shown
above. The lengths of the paths from the spider to the fly are computed in these
cases and shown.
You can try this out yourself! What you will notice is that the
distance between the spider and the fly is not the same in all cases.
You can examine the various configurations and discover the shortest
route.
PROBLEM 2 This exercise will bring home to you the fact that the
lines of latitude are not the lines of shortest distance on the globe.
Thus, it is misleading to draw straight lines on flat maps of the Earth
to determine the shortest routes between points.
PROBLEM 3 This hint will help prove the result. The vertex angle
of the triangle at A is a. Extend the arms of the triangle fully, so
that they become intersecting great circles. The two circles meeting
at vertex A will thus form a couple of wedges between A and its
antipode A', where the great circles meet again (see Figure 18.3).
Figure 18.3 The wedge with vertex angle a is shown as the shaded portion.
The area of a wedge is simply 2a. This can be seen as follows. If

we imagine wedges from point A of different angles, then the area
of a wedge is proportional to its angle...the wedge with angle 2a
will have twice as much area as the wedge of angle a, for example.
The total angle at any vertex is 2ir, and for this angle the entire
surface area of the unit sphere, 4-л- is covered. Thus, the simple rule
is that a wedge of angle a has an area of 2a. Now think of the given
triangle as an area common to the three wedges emerging from the
three vertices, and with a little book-keeping, you will get the result.
You may have to examine all the sections of the sphere made by
these intersecting wedges. These are all triangles which make up the
different wedges.
18.10 CHAPTER 10
PROBLEM 1 You may be tempted to try out the exercise of covering

by the domino-pieces. However, there is a simple argument to show
why the covering is not possible. Each domino-piece covers two
squares, one must necessarily be white and one black. Thus, as
long as we do not overlap the pieces, the number of black squares
covered will equal the number of white squares covered. But the
squares chopped off at the end of a diagonal are either both black
or both white. Thus, the number of black-and-white squares in the
truncated chessboard will differ by 2. Hence, covering the board by
domino-pieces as desired is not possible.
PROBLEM 2 You can solve this problem by following the sequence

of firing, such that in the beginning D was shot by A. This tells you
that the other person who could aim at D did not do so. On the
other hand, G was not killed by D and so he was killed by С. Follow
this argument till you arrive at the end when only A is left.
PROBLEM 3 We are sure that you can now use Euler's result to
solve this problem, rather than spend time tracing the figures!
PROBLEM 4 Try the analytical reasoning that was used by Euler.
18.11 CHAPTER 1 1
PROBLEM 1 Try cutting and see what you get!
PROBLEM 2 Actually, if you try to do the 'turning inside-out' exercise,

what you get is not what was shown in Figure 18.4 in Chapter 11
(although that looked natural enough!), but what is given in this
figure here. As you find, the loops are still linked!
(inside-out)
Figure 18.4 The lowerfigureshows the inside-out version of the upper figure.
PROBLEM 3 People really get themselves tangled up trying to sort

this one out. Rather than describe it in words, it is better to say it
with pictures. So Figure 18.5 here illustrates how it is done.
Figure 18.5 The step pictured above is self-explanatory.
PROBLEM 4 Again, pictures say it better than words. So here is the

answer contained in Figure 18.6.
Figure 18.6 The step shown above is self-explantory.
You can use this trick to put looped address labels on your suitcase-
handle before taking a flight.
18.12 CHAPTER 12
PROBLEM 1 Suppose that there are seven places from which the
airline flies services to a city X. Call these places A\,A2,..., Ay. Then
we have a heptagon made up by these seven vertices around X.
The total angle around X is 360°. This will be divided into seven
parts. So there will be at least one angle, say /.A\XA2, which is less
than 60°. In the triangle AAyXA2, one angle at least will therefore
exceed 60°, and so will exceed /.A\XA2. Suppose it is the angle
facing the side XAi. Then it follows that the side XA\ exceeds the
side A\,A2, as shown in Figure 18.7.
Figure 18.7 An example of air-routes.
In that case, the condition that X must be the nearest place to

A\ is violated, as the place A2 is closer to it.
PROBLEM 2 Refer to the Figures 18.8a, 6, c, wherein we have three

countries А, В and C, represented by contiguous squares within a
larger rectangular area that also contains some unoccupied space to
begin with. Suppose the side of a typical square is taken as unit
of length.
The countries wish to expand their territory into the unoccupied
region, each keeping a safe distance from the territory acquired by the
other two. First A takes over part of the region as shown in the figure,
ensuring that the corridor taken by it leaves an unclaimed land, no
point of which is more than a unit of length from some point of its en-
larged boundary. Then В takes another part of the remaining region,
choosing its boundary to be within half-unit of the now-unclaimed
region as shown in the figure. Then С enters the region and takes
another part of the remaining area, ensuring that its boundary is
within one-third unit of the boundaries of both A and B. Next, it is

the turn of A to do the same, followed by В then C. This cycle goes
on and on, till the entire region is filled up, with the boundaries
coming within 1/n unit of the unclaimed region at the nth incur-
sion. However, with the intermeshing of successive areas acquired,
the common boundaries of these countries also approach arbitrarily
close. The limiting boundary line will have the desired property,
namely, any point on it will be arbitrarily close to every country.
Figure 18.8 Read the text and check the three figures (a)-(c) which show
the first three steps of an infinite process.
A contrived solution, no doubt, but it serves to show that math-

ematics can turn up cases that defy our intuition. Mathematically,
at each stage, the curves of the boundaries exist and can be drawn,
but it is impossible to draw the limiting boundary curve.
PROBLEM 3 The point P is also outside: but this illustrates the

difficulty of deciding with maze-like curves.
18.13 CHAPTER 13
PROBLEM 1 When two dice are tossed up, there are a number of
ways that the numbers on their upturned faces add up to the same
total. Thus, 4 can be one of the following combinations:
4 = 1 + 3 = 2 + 2 = 3 + 1.
So out of the 6 x 6 = 36 possible combinations, 3 favour the

number 4. Find out which number has the largest combinations going
for it. That is the number you should bet on. We leave you to work
this out.
PROBLEM 2 Let us work out the probability that in a group of 30

people, no two share a birthday. Number the persons from 1 to 30.
Let us start with 1. He/she will have a birthday on some day of the
year, say July 19. The next person's birthday can fall on any of the
remaining 364 days of the year. The probability of this happening is
364/365. For person 3 to have a birthday avoiding the dates of the
first two persons, the probability is 363/365. And so it goes all the
way down to the 30th person, whose birthday can fall on any of the
365 - 29 = 336 days of the year, the probability for this being 336/365.
So the probability of all these independent events (independent
because there is no causal relationship between the occurrence of
birthdays of all these persons) taking place simultaneously is
p _ 364 363 336

X X
~ 365 365 " ' 365'
A little computation with a calculator will show you that the
answer is P ~ 0.3, approximately. So if Manisha placed even odds on
at least two persons sharing a birthday, she did well. For, the chance
of her losing Rs 100 is P = 0.3 and gaining Rs 100 is 1 - P = 0.7.

So her expectation in rupees from the bet is
E = 100 x (1 - P ) - 100 x P = 100 x (1 - 2P) ~ 40.
In other words, if she took several such bets she would, on an

average, win Rs 40/- from each bet. What is not realized easily is
that although a factor like 340/365 appears close to unity, it is less
than that and the product of several such factors decreases rapidly.
PROBLEM 3 This problem is famous and known as Bertrand's Para-

dox. Its paradoxical nature will shortly become clear. Suppose we
specify all the randomly-drawn chords by their distance from the
centre. Those chords which are closer than half the radius will ex-
ceed the side of the inscribed equilateral triangle. So if the random
variable is the chord's distance from the centre, the probability is
1/2. Figure 18.9a illustrates this.
Figure 18.9 Two ways of 'drawing a chord at random' are illustrated in (a)
and (b). The probabilities for (a) and (b) are different.
However, there may be another way of drawing the random chord,

as shown in Figure 18.96. We take one end of the chord as fixed at
P, say, and let the other Q move randomly on the circumference. If
О is the centre of the circle, then the chords for which the Z.OPQ
lies between - 3 0 ° to +30°, exceed the stipulated length. In general,
this angle can vary between - 9 0 ° to +90°, for all chords. So the
probability is 1/3.
Which answer is correct? In fact, the ambiguity lies in the question
not specifying how the random chord is to be drawn. This is an

example of a vague stipulation yielding a multitude of possible
answers.
PROBLEM 4 This is obtained by a slight extension of the method

given in the text. The answer is 21/-nd.
18.14 CHAPTER 1 4
PROBLEM 1 By the difference of squares law, the number left in

Nelson's fleet would have been:
N = у/402 - 232 - 232 ~ 23.
PROBLEM 2 The equations (1) and (2) would be changed to
dx
=
Tt ~Ay'
dy
=
Tt
Now multiply the first equation by цх and subtract from it the
second multiplied by Ay, and integrate the result to get
fix 2 — А у 2 — constant = цх o2 — Ayo2.
For the specific example, when Force Y is annihilated, we are left

with a strength of Force X equal to
x = ^О.ЭЭ.жо,
from which the result follows.
18.15 CHAPTER 1 5
PROBLEM 1 See Figure 18.10. If AB is the line, draw a circle with a

centre A and radius AB. With the same radius draw an arc centred
on В and cutting the circle at C. Repeat the exercise with С as the
centre to find D on the circle. Then with D as centre locate E on

the circle. You can show that BE = 2 AB. (Of course, E is collinear
with AB but without a ruler you cannot extend BA to £ ! ) With A
and В respectively as centres, draw arcs of radius BE intersecting
at F. With F as centre draw an arc of the same radius intersecting
the original circle at G between D and E. Now you can show that
GE = (1/2 )AB.
F
Figure 18.10 Follow the text of Problem 1.
PROBLEM 2 This is more involved than Problem 1, but here is how

you can go about it (see Figure 18.11a).
First, we shall show how to construct the inverse point P ' of a
point P, with respect to a circle whose centre is known to be at O.
What is an inverse point? If r is the radius of the circle, then the
points О, P, P' are collinear, with OP. OP' = r2. Obviously, if P
lies inside the circle, P' lies outside (and vice versa). For the purpose
of demonstration we choose P outside the circle.
With P as centre and OP as radius, draw a circle intersecting
the given circle at R and S. With R and S as centres and r as
radius, draw arcs which intersect at О (of course!) and P ' . P ' is
the inverse point. If P lies inside the circle, the same construion
can be repeated. (There is a complication if P is so near О that
the circle with P as centre and OP as radius does not intersect the
given circle. There is a way of 'pushing P' along OP to a point Pn
such that OPn = an integral multiple of OP and Pn lies outside the
given circle. Hint: use the construction for Problem 1.)
To come to the main solution see the construction given in Figure
18.116. Here we are given the circle on the right and are asked to
find its centre.
Take a point О on the circumference of the given circle and draw

a circle intersecting it at R and S. With R and S as centres, draw
arcs of radius OR = OS which intersect in О and P'. Construct the
inverse point P of P ' with respect to the circle with it's centre at O.
Then P is the centre of the given circle.
Figure 18.11 Figure (a) shows how to construct the inverse point with respect
to a given circle with a centre. Figure (b) uses this construction to find the
centre of a given circle.
If you look at the two constructions side-by-side you will find that
they are (eventually) identical! Only in the first case we are given
the circle with centre at О and asked to find the inverse point of P
with respect to it. In the second case, we generate a second circle
of a known centre and radius and apply the same construction to
discover the centre of the given circle.
18.16 CHAPTER 17
PROBLEM 1 She asked to play simultaneously with the two masters,

using black pieces on one board and white pieces on the other.
Whatever move the first master played with white pieces, she repeated
against the other using the white pieces. The responses of the second
master with black pieces, she repeated on the first chessboard. Thus,
she was effectively making the two masters play by proxy. Either
they drew or one of them won. In any case, she ended up with two
draws or one win + one loss, which was better than the two losses
registered by her father!
PROBLEM 2 In a circular track, the inner path is shorter than the

outer one. For a person going along a path winding upwards like a
right-hand screw, the outer path will be to the right and inner path
will be to the left. The motorist took the right-hand path going up,
i.e., he/she was driving along the right-hand side of the road and
hence the answer is 'Canada'.
PROBLEM 3 Use a graph paper to plot the range along the ж-axis
and the time along the y-axis. (See Figure 18.12.) The points A and
В on the х-axis denote the two stations. The times are shown as
from 7 am to 9 pm on the y-axis. The points Pi and Q j denote
the starting points and the points P2 and Q2, the end points of
Q- 9 pm
8 pm
8 am
7 am
A Distance В
Figure 18.12 See text of Problem 3.
the two trajectories of the runner. Thus, the previous day's trajectory
connecting Pi and P2, no matter how it is drawn, will intersect the
next day's trajectory connecting Qi and Q2 at some point R. This
denotes the position and time of the place mentioned.
PROBLEM 4 This is a classic example of filling up a problem with

irrelevant data. The solution is in the first sentence: if you are the
bus driver, your age is the bus driver's age.
PROBLEM 5 Complete the triangle by joining the ends of the two

diagonals...it is an equilateral triangle. So the angle required is 60°.
PROBLEM 6 This convoluted problem deals with ages across four

epochs: the present ('is' = I), the future ('will be' = 11), the past
('was'= 111) and the remote past ('had b e e n ' = IV). Let Shyam be
aged x in epoch IV. Then Ram had been aged 3x in IV. Then Shyam
will be aged 9a: in epoch II. So Ram was aged 4.5x in epoch III.
Since the age difference between them is 2x, Shyam was aged 2.5x
in epoch III. So Ram is aged bx at the present epoch. And Shyam
is therefore aged 3x at the present epoch. Since their ages add up
to 24 at present, 8x = 24, giving x = 3, and the present ages of Ram
and Shyam as 15 and 9, respectively.
PROBLEM 7 Many people erroneously think that this has to do with

the leap year. No, the relevant date on which the person was making
this remark was January 1, while his birthday was on December 31.
Now you can now work it all out.
PROBLEM 8 This is typical of several such problems on counterfeit

coins. Here we divide them into three equal lots A,B,C of four
coins each, let us number them ..., Bi,..., C\..., etc. First, weigh
lot A against lot B. Suppose they balance out. Then the counterfeit
coin is in lot C. The second weighing is then of С \ , С 2 , С з against
A i , A , A , the latter being confirmed as good by the first weighing.
2 3
If they also balance out, then the remaining C4 is defective and can
be checked against any good coin for being heavy or light. If the
three C's are heavy (light), weigh C\ against C 2 . If they balance out
then C3 is heavy (light). If they don't then the heavier (lighter) one
is the defective coin.
If, however, the first weighing shows the A's to be heavier than
the B's, then we know that either the counterfeit coin is in lot A
and is heavy or in lot В and is light. We also know that all C's are
good coins. Now weigh A x , A , B i against B , A , C i . Suppose this
2 2 3
lot balance out. Then either coin A4 is heavy or, one of the coins B3
or В4 is light. Weigh the latter against each other. If they balance,
then both are good and A4 is counterfeit. If they don't balance, then
the lighter one is counterfeit. If the set A , A , B is heavier, then
1 2 1
either one of A i , A is heavier or B is lighter. Weigh A i against

2 2
A2 to find out. Similarly, if the set A , A , B i is lighter, then either

x 2
B\ is light or A3 is heavy. Weigh the former against a good coin to

find out the answer.
PROBLEM 9 Start both ropes burning at the same time, but light up
both ends of rope 1 and one end of rope 2. Rope 1 will be fully
burnt in half-an-hour when the fire from both ends joins up. At that
instant light up the other end of rope 2. The two fires will meet up
in another 15 minutes, when rope 2 is fully burnt.
PROBLEM 1 0 Suppose the escalator has N steps at any given time

and suppose that it covers n steps in one second. Then it follows
that N = 30n. Let the commuter move up at the rate of s steps per
second. Then on a moving escalator she goes up n + s steps in one
second. Hence, we have 12(n + s) = N = 30n. From this relation, we
get s — 1.5n. Therefore, N = 20s, i.e., the commuter will walk up a
stationary escalator in 20 seconds.
PROBLEM 1 1 It is interesting to note that by symmetry, at each stage

the four runners form the vertices of a square whose side steadily
shrinks. The relative rate of approach of the two ends is 10 km per
hour. So to shrink a 100 m-side to zero will take one hundredth
part of an hour, i.e., 36 seconds.
PROBLEM 1 2 If you try to compute the details of the to and fro

motion of the fly, you will get entangled in an infinite series. The
simple solution is to find out when the two engines meet: this will
happen in 250/(100 + 100) = 1.25 hours. During this period, the fly
will have covered a distance of 150 x 1.25 = 187.5 km. [Legend has
it that John von Neumann, who contributed so much to the ideas
on the logic of electronic computing and who himself possessed a
fast working computer-like brain, solved this problem mentally by
summing up the infinite series of fly's to and fro distances, and was
reportedly surprised when told of this simple selutign, although he
took the same short time to do the sum by his lengthy route! Later,
a colleague revealed that von Neumann had also done the problem
by the simpler way, but told the questioner that he did it by the
lengthier method just to pull his leg! Whatever the truth, the legend
has survived.]
PROBLEM 1 3 If the lift is moving continuously up and down, relative

to someone on the first floor, the lift will be at a higher level (the
floors 2-20) for a duration 19 times the duration that the lift is at a
lower level. So our worker found the lift coming down more often
than going up. The same argument explains his experience on the
19th floor.
PROBLEM 1 4 He should keep it diagonally in a cubical box of side

60 cm, which is permitted. The length of the diagonal is 60\/3 cm,
i.e., a little over about 103 cm.
PROBLEM 1 5 Consider the last division when all three were awake.
Assume that each one got x mangoes and one was left. This means
that before division, the quantity of mangoes was Зх + l. This was
left after С had carried out his exercise. Suppose that before he
carried out the division there were у mangoes. Then after dividing
у by 3 there was a remainder of 1 which went to the monkey. С
therefore kept (y - l ) / 3 mangoes to himself, and left 2(y - l ) / 3 in
the general kitty. So we have:
which gives
у = |(3® + 1) + 1.
Again we use the same argument to deduce that before В divided
the kitty, it contained
3
z = -y 4- 1
2
mangoes. And before A got into action, the kitty was
л 3 3 3 3
+ 1 = -y + 1 Ш ( З х + 1) + 1 ) + 1
« = 2 * 2 2y 2
Now, you have to choose an x as small as you can, while ensuring
that the number of mangoes at each stage is a whole number. A
little care will show that x — 7 and Q = 79.
[One of the many apocryphal stories about the celebrated physicist

Paul Dirac, is that he solved the monkey problem by arriving at the
answer of 'minus two mangoes'! As can be seen, if we divide - 2
by 3 we get a quotient of —1 and a remainder 1, which goes to
the monkey. The interesting aspect of this solution is that after A
has taken his share of — 1, what is left is again the original kitty
of - 2 . Thus, the operation leaves the kitty invariant. Now, why did
Dirac think of negative mangoes? Because, while formulating the
quantum mechanics of the particle called the electron, he hit upon
the concept of the antiparticle. A particle and antiparticle annihilate
each other producing pure radiation. The antiparticle of the electron
is called the positron. It is something like a negative electron. So,
the above solution may be called the anti-mango solution!]
Bibliography
SMALLER BOOKS
1. Barnard, D.St.P. (1973) Figure It Out, Pan Books Ltd, London.
2. Fixx, James F. (1972) Games for the Super-Intelligent, Popular

Library, New York.
3. Gammow, George and Stern, Marvin (1958) Puzzle-Math, Macmil-

lan and Co., London.
4. Gardner, Martin (1965) Mathematical Puzzles and Diversions, Pen-

guin Books Ltd, England.
5. Gardner, Martin (1971) Perplexing Puzzles and Tantalizing Teasers,

Archway Paperbacks, New York.
6. Mira, Julio A. (1970) Mathematical Teasers, Barnes and Noble

Books, New York.
7. Phillips, Hubert (1945), Something to Think About, Penguin Books,

London.
LARGER VOLUMES
1. Bell, E.T. (1999) Men of Mathematics.
2. Kasner, Edward and Newman, James (1952) Mathematics and

Imagination, Simon and Schuster, New York.
3. Newman, James R. (1956) The World of Mathematics, Vols I-IV,

Simon and Schuster, New York.
Index
С, 33 C a r d i n a l n u m b e r , 31, 32
7Г, 29, 133 C a r d i n a l n u m b e r s , 31
с, 3 3 C h e s s b o a r d p r o b l e m . , 102
е , 29 C o l o u r i n g of M a p s , 117
п 2 law, 139 C o m p l e x n u m b e r s , 73
C o m p o u n d Interest, 27
A b d u l l a h A1 M a n s u r , 10 C o m p o u n d I n t e r e s t s , 27
A b d u s S a l a m , 10 C o m t e d e B u f f o n , 133
A d m i r a l N e l s o n , 135, 138 C o n d i t i o n a l p r o b a b i l i t y , 129
A l b e r t E i n s t e i n , 86 C o n j e c t u r e , 157
a l e p h null, 31, 3 4 C o n j e c t u r e s , 155, 156
aleph one, 33 C o n s t r u c t i b l e , 146
A l f r e d B r a y K e m p e , 119 C o n s t r u c t i b l e L e n g t h s a n d A n g l e s , 143
A n d r e w Weil, 156 C o u n t e r f e i t c o i n , 161
A n g u l a r A p p e a r a n c e of D i s t a n t S o u r c e s , C o u n t e r f e i t coins, 187
89 C u r v a t u r e in T h r e e D i m e n s i o n s , 8 6
A p o l l o n i u s , 147 Cyclic N u m b e r s , 18
A p p e l , 1 2 0 - 1 2 2 , 157 Cyclic n u m b e r s , 19
A r c h i m e d e s , 147
A r t h u r S t a n l e y E d d i n g t o n , 87 D i f f e r e n c e of s q u a r e s , 136
A r t h u r Sullivan, 5 1 D i f f e r e n c e of S q u a r e s L a w , 135
A u g u s t M o b i u s , 104 D o u b l e a given c u b e , 142
A u g u s t u s d e M o r g a n , 118 D o u b l i n g t h e C u b e , 149
A x i o m s , 46, 78
E i n s t e i n , 91
Barber's paradox, 51 E i n s t e i n ' s relativity t h e o r y , 8 7
B a t t l e of T r a f a l g a r , 138 E i n s t e i n cross, 8 9
B e n d i n g of light rays, 87 E q u i v a l e n t sets, 3 1
B e r t r a n d ' s P a r a d o x , 182 E u c l i d , 50, 79
B e r t r a n d Russell, 50, 154 E u c l i d ' s g e o m e t r y , 46, 78, 90, 117
Binary Arithmetic, 8 E u c l i d ' s g e o m e t r y , p a r a l l e l p o s t u l a t e , 86
B i n a r y n o t a t i o n , 165 Euclid's parallel postulate, 84
B i n a r y system, 11 E u c l i d e a n g e o m e t r y , 79
Bolyai, 80 E u l e r , 101, 177
B r a h m a ' s T o w e r , 34 E u l e r ' s , 100
B u f f o n ' s , 134 E x p o n e n t i a l f u n c t i o n , 29
B u f f o n ' s n e e d l e p r o b l e m , 134
B u f f o n ' s N e e d l e P r o b l e m , 131 Fallacies, 66, 69, 74
fallacy, 71, 75, 76, 119, 174
C a n t o r , 31, 33 F e r m a t , 156
C a r d i n a l i t y , 32, 3 3 F e r m a t ' s , 156
INDEX 193
F e r m a t ' s last t h e o r e m , 75, 156 J o h n v o n N e u m a n n , 188

F e r m a t ' s l e s s e r t h e o r e m , 14 J o r d a n , 117
F i n i t e set, 31 J o s e p h u s , 17, 18
F i v e - c h r o m a t i c m a p , 120 J o s e p h u s P r o b l e m , 17
F o u r - c o l o u r c o n j e c t u r e , 121
F o u r - c o l o u r p r o b l e m , 75, 118, 156 Konigsberg, 93
F o u r c o l o u r c o n j e c t u r e , 119 K o n i g s b e r g p r o b l e m , 94, 95
F r a e n k e l , 154 K a n k a h , 10
F r a n c i s G u t h r i e , 118, 119 K e m p e , 120
F r e d e r i c k , 118 K e m p e ' s , 121, 122
F r e d e r i c k W i l l i a m L a n c h e s t e r , 135 K e n n e t h A p p e l , 120
K l e i n B o t t l e , 112, 113
G o d e l ' s , 155 K u r t G o d e l , 154
G o d e l ' s T h e o r e m , 154
G o d e l ' s t h e o r e m , 155 L a n c h e s t e r , 139
G a m b l e r ' s R u i n , 124 L a r g e , 25
G a m e of f o u r 4s, 1 L a r g e N u m b e r s , 24, 34
G a m o w ' s , 111 L e n g t h , 146
G a u s s , 80 L e n g t h s w h i c h a r e c o n s t r u c t i b l e , 144
G e n e r a l , 86 L e o n h a r d E u l e r , 94
G e n e r a l relativity, 87, 8 8 L i m i t a t i o n s of M a t h e m a t i c s , 153
G e o m e t r i c p r o g r e s s i o n , 25, 28 Lobatchewsky, 80
G e o m e t r i c series, 26 L o g i c a l i n f e r e n c e , 56
G e o m e t r y o n a Saddle, 83 L o g i c of B i n a r y A r i t h m e t i c , 12
G e o m e t r y o n a S p h e r e , 80
G e o r g C a n t o r , 30 M o b i u s strip, 104, 113
G e o r g e G a m o w , 108 M o b i u s , 104
G e o r g e s - L o u i s L e c l e r c , 133 M o b i u s S t r i p , 104, 106, 111, 112
G o l d b a c h ' s c o n j e c t u r e , 157 M o b i u s strip, 112
G r a p h t h e o r y , 101 M o b i u s Strip., 107, 108
Gravitational Lensing, 88 M o b i u s strip., 105
G r e a t circle, 80, 81 M a t h e m a t i c a l I n d u c t i o n , 57
G r e l l i n g a n d N e l s o n , 154 M a t h e m a t i c a l induction, 58
M a t h e m a t i c a l i n d u c t i o n , 56, 168
H a a k e n , 122 M a t h e m a t i c s a n d W a r f a r e , 135
H a k e n , 120, 121, 157
H a r e a n d t o r t o i s e , 36 N e c e s s a r y , 119
H y p e r c u b e , 41, 42, 44, 170 N e g a t i v e c u r v a t u r e , 84, 85
N e l s o n , 139, 140
I d e n t i t y t r a n s f o r m a t i o n , 110 N o n - E u c l i d e a n g e o m e t r i e s , 79
I m p o s s i b l e O n e s , 142 N o n - E u c l i d e a n g e o m e t r y , 82, 87, 88, 91
I n f i n i t e , 31, 49, 50 N o r m a l m a p , 120
I n f i n i t e set, 31 N o u g h t s a n d C r o s s e s , 38, 45
Infinities, 24, 30, 169 N u m b e r , 25
Infinity, 49 N u m b e r F i e l d , 148
I n s i d e a n d O u t s i d e , 116
I n s i d e o r o u t s i d e , 122, 123 O c t a l s y s t e m , 11, 12
I n v a r i a n c e , 116 O n e - t o - o n e c o r r e s p o n d e n c e , 31, 33
I n v e r s e p o i n t , 184, 185 O r t h o g o n a l m a t r i x , 110
194
P a r a d o x , 48, 49, 53, 169 S q u a r e a given circle, 142

P a r a d o x e s , 48, 66, 153 S q u a r i n g t h e C i r c l e , 151
Parallel p o s t u l a t e , 79, 82, 8 3 S t r a i g h t line, 80, 81
Paul D i r a c , 190 S u f f i c i e n t , 119
Place v a l u e , 9 S u r f a c e s of Positive a n d N e g a t i v e C u r -
P o i n c a r e , 154 v a t u r e , 84
Positive, 84
Positive c u r v a t u r e , 85 T h e B a r b e r ' s P a r a d o x , 46
P o s t u l a t e , 79 T h e G a m e of F o u r 4s, 1
Postulates, 78 T h e S c a l e of 2, 5
P o w e r of t h e c o n t i n u m , 3 3 T h e S e v e n B r i d g e s of K o n i g s b e r g , 9 3
P r i m e n u m b e r , 49 T h e Witch's Curse, 51
P r i m e n u m b e r s , 49 T o p o l o g y , 101, 115
P r i m e s , 49, 5 0 T o r u s , 113
P r i n c i p i a M a t h e m a t i c a , 51 T r a c i n g figure, 95
Probability, 1 2 4 - 1 2 7 , 129, 1 3 1 - 1 3 4 , 181 T r a n s f o r m a t i o n m a t r i x , 110
P y t h a g o r a s , 156 Triplet, 38, 43, 4 4
P y t h a g o r i a n triplets, 156 Triplets, 45
Trisect a given a n g l e , 142
Q u a s a r 0 9 5 7 + 5 6 1 , 89 Trisecting a given a n g l e , 147
T r i s e c t i n g a n A n g l e , 150
R a t i o n a l n u m b e r , 32, 3 3
T r u e o r False, 5 8
R a t i o n a l n u m b e r s , 32, 148
Twist in S p a c e , 106
R e d u c t i o a d a b s u r d u m , 49, 50, 121
R e f l e c t i o n , 108, 111
U n i v e r s i t y of Illinois, 120, 122
Relativity, 86
R i c h a r d ' s p a r a d o x , 153
R i e m a n n , 80 V a r a n a s i , 34
R u d d i g o r e , 51 V o n N e u m a n n , 154, 189
R u s s e l l ' s P a r a d o x , 50, 51
Witch's Curse, 51
S c h r o d e r — B e r n s t e i n t h e o r e m , 32, 3 3 W o l f g a n g H a k e n , 120
S e l f - e v i d e n t facts, 78 W S G i l b e r t , 51
Set, 51
Set of all i n t e g e r s , 31 Z e n o , 36
Set of sets, 51 Z e n o ' s p a r a d o x e s , 36
Seven b r i d g e s of K o n i g s b e r g . , 9 3 Z e r m e l o , 154
www.universitiespress.com
This book introduces fundamental ideas in Mathematics through interesting

puzzles. I t is intended to get the readers interested in the subject and also
convey some basic concepts. Many bright students from age 12 upwards are
bored with routine class work in Maths and will enjoy these puzzles which will
sharpen their logical reasoning. Thus, the subject dreaded by many can indeed
be very interesting, absorbing and enjoyable, at least as much as chess or
bridge
The book is designed to arouse an interest in Mathematics amongst the
readers, thereby serving as a supplementary text for the 12-18 age group.
Dr Jayant V Narlikar is the Director of the Inter-University Center for

Astronomy and Astrophysics, Pune. He is also Honorary Professor at the
JNCASR, Bangalore. In a long and outstanding teaching and research career,
Dr Narlikar was associated with a number of theories and studies in modern
cosmology and has worked with Fred Hoyle on the Hoyle-Narlikar Theory of
Conformal Gravity. He is the author of the book Elements of Cosmology
(Universities Press), and has many other books to his credit.
Dr Mangala Narlikar is an informal teacher of Mathematics.
Universities Press
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Universities Press MATHEMATICS

3-6-752 Himayatnagar, Hyderabad 500 029 (A.P.), India

First Published 2001

1SBN-13: 978 81 7371 398 9

1. The Game of Four 4s 1

(The late Professor M.S. Huzurbazar of the

who introduced us to the

I V I a t h e m a t i c s was called 'The Queen of Sciences' by the famous

Having professionally enjoyed these various aspects of mathematics,

April, 2001 Mangala & Jayant Narlikar

1.1 T H E FOURTH RANKED KING

P e r h a p s nothing can give you as much fun and experience of

1.2 RULES OF THE GAME

Likewise, one can raise expressions to powers, e.g., 4 4 = 256.

(III) The next important operation is of decimalization, both regular

To make 13, we can proceed in many ways. For example,

Figure 1.2 The King is pleased...

1.5 SOME PROBLEMS FOR YOU!

1. Construct the following numbers using four 4s:

2.1 T H E LAZY STUDENT

The normal method of multiplication of the above two numbers

But of course, our student would have nothing to do with this

by 2 in the second column and write the answer underneath it in the

Just to consolidate our understanding of this method, let us do

Now compare the answer with the usual method of multiplication,

2.3 BINARY ARITHMETIC

Why does the method work?

One million, ten thousand and eleven.

However, that is because in the scale of ten we attach a place value

1 x 106 + 0 x 105 + 1 x 104 + 0 x 103 + 0 x 102 + 1 x 10 + 1,

113 x 83 = 113 x [1 x 26 + 0 x 2 5 + 1 x 24 + 0 x 2 3 + 0 x 2 2 + 1 x 2 + 1].

above sum. The trick of moving a multiple of 113 (by a power of 2)

2.3.1 T H E SIGNIFICANCE OF PLACE VALUE

Now, for a historical flashback...

1 = 1,2 = II, 3 = III,

followed by V for 5. What about 4? They wrote it with I to the left

9 = IX, 11 = XI, 12 = XII, 13 = XIII, 14 = XIV, 15 = XV,...

An Astronomical General Assembly Circa 767 A.D.?

Almost exactly twelve hundred years ago, Abdullah A1 Mansur, the

[from a speech delivered in 1967, at Dhaka, erstwhile East Pakistan, by

Although we have been taught this system at school and use it in

83 = 1010011, and, 45 = 101101.

2.4 T H E LOGIC OF BINARY ARITHMETIC

The binary system of numbers, using j.ust 0 and 1, has a close

The computer can display this by seven switches in appropriately

EXERCISE Express this number (99) in the octal system.

In Chapter 6, we will come across a few puzzles of the true/false

true/false is the only set of alternatives ? In that chapter, we will

2.5 PROBLEMS FOR YOU TO SOLVE

Figure 2.3 The Number-guessing Cards

Ask a friend to think of a number between 1 and 31 and then

2. Consider the number N = 2P~1 — 1 when p is a prime. [A prime

Some Arithmetical Titbits

I n this chapter, we will look at some interesting games and puzzles

Now reverse it to get

Now reverse the answer and add to it. Thus,

Here is a game that apparently involves addition only; but in reality,

Round No. A adds В adds Total

3.3 T H E JOSEPHUS PROBLEM

Figure 3.1 Jews arranged in a sequence 1, 2,... along a circle.

To solve this problem, number all the positions and progressively

The original positions are:

And so we continue going 'round and round' and successively re-

3.4 CYCLIC NUMBERS

Fun & Fundamentals of Mathematics - Narlikar

Fun & Fundamentals of Mathematics - Narlikar