Problem 231– Table fable
'Twas the night night before the PT Design Show, and all through the hall, not one Periodic Table poster hung on a wall.
When the show master arrived seeing the walls were bare, she wanted to know why the posters weren't there. Just then a call came bringing the news, the posters were in the mailroom, the pick-up was refused. After fingers were pointed and blame roundly passed, one of the editors finally got up off his -- chair. With posters in hand he flagged a cab down, "I'll fly them there myself," he said with a frown. Down the concourse he sprinted, red in the face, not even thinking about overhead space.
As he boarded the plane, the steward's eyes opened wide, "Sir, please check that bag, there's no room for an item that size." "What?" he asked, "This tube is only 40 inches long, your compartments are two-foot cubes, you must be wrong." "Okay, wise guy," he said, "on you go – we'll see if you can get that package to stow!"
Now tell us, bright readers, who's right and who's wrong, could it actually be that the poster's too long?
If you missed the show in Greenville, you need not despair, you can still get a Periodic Table poster even though you weren't there.
The prize goes to...
Fun problem 229:
Root of the problem, September, 1999:
Total entries: 369
Number correct: 320 (86.7%)
Winner: Ralph A. Neher of Bellingham, Wash.
Ralph's prize: Maple V software
Solution to October's problem, 230 - Pet project:
You're a goat-ground-cover expert if you answered that the goat covered 1,817 ft.2 – here's how he did it:
First section the available grazing area as in the following figure: