The cat and dog race
Contents |
Puzzle
MANY years ago, when
Barnum's Circus was
of a truth the greatest show on earth,
the famous showman
got me to prepare for him a series of
prize puzzles for advertising pru-
poses, which became widely known
as the Questions of the Sphynx, on
account of the large prizes offered
to any one who could master them.
Barnum was particularly pleased
with the problem of the cat and dog
race, and published it far and wide
that on a certain first day of April he
would give the answer and award
the prizes, or, as he aptly put it,
"let the cat out of the bag, for the
benefit of those most concerned.
The wording of the puzzle was
as follows:
A trained cat and dog run a race,
100 feet straightaway and return.
The dog leaps three feet at each
bound and the cat but two, but then
she makes three leaps to his two.
Now, under those circumstances,
what are the probabilities or possibilities in favor of the one that gets
back first ?
It looks childlike and bland, as
Bret Harte would say, but the fact
of the answer to be made public on
the first of April, and the sly reference to letting the cat out of the
bag, was enough to intimate to the
public that the great showman had
some funny answer up his sleeve.
Can you solve the puzze?
Puzzle in short
Tell whether the cat or dog should win the race and why
Solution
Show solution
References
- Loyd, Sam [1914]. in Loyd, Sam, Jr.: Sam Loyd's Cyclopedia of 5000 Puzzles Tricks and Conundrums (in English). New York: Lamb Publishing company, page 19.
