Kohler - Brainteasers

SURFING A MAGICAL INTERNET

Book 2: Brainteasers

HEINZ KOHLER

Copyright 2014 by Heinz Kohler

Notes:

Copyright is claimed for the books cover (designed by theauthor and featuring one of his acrylic paintings), the photograph appearing onthe dedication page, the authors reproduction, editing, and arrangement ofLiebig card images, the translation into English and editing of explanatorytext associated with the Liebig cards (originally written in German) and theauthors supplementary commentary (which sometimes makes use of informationgleaned from various language editions of the Wikipedia, the FreeEncyclopedia). For purposes of identification, the authors commentary thatis partially indebted to the Wikipedia has been placed between squarebrackets in this book.

Unlike the authors edited reproductions of Liebig picturesincluded in this volume, their originals lie in the public domain. They werepublished well over a century ago on advertising cards issued by the nowextinct Liebigs Extract of Meat Company.

By the same author:

Surfing a MagicalInternet, Book 1: Extraordinary Birds

Read excerpts at www.surfingamagicalinternet.com

My Name Was Five: A Novelof the Second World War

Read excerpts at www.mynamewasfive.com

Caution Snake Oil! HowStatistical Thinking Can Help Us Expose Misinformation About Our Health

Read excerpts at www.cautionsnakeoil.com

Additional publicationsare listed at www.goodreads.com/author/list/1480913.Heinz_Kohler

Dedicated to mygrandmother,

Anna MariaFrster,

who told such wonderfulstories,

to her greatgrandchildren,

Marjorie andVictoria,

Martin and Simone,

to her great greatgrandchildren,

Kevin and Timothy,

Christoph, Arne,and Julie,

and to children ofall ages

everywhere

Contents

Foreword

Once upon a time, in afaraway country, a little girl learned a great deal about the worldnot bygoing to school, but by collecting sets of strange and captivating picturecards that were put out by the advertising department of a new company. Thelittle girl was my own maternal grandmother living in Germany and the companywas a business founded in 1865 by Justus von Liebig who was eager to selllittle jars of meat extract to people of all ages. The Liebig Company jarslooked similar to those of present-day baby food and, if you bought enough ofthem, you could accumulate a sufficient number of associated Liebig cards tofill a colorful picture book with fascinating stories on just about everythingpeople knew at the time. In the process, you could travel the globe, meetpeople from all the countries of the world, and learn about their customs. Youcould study up on plants and animals or the evolution of commerce andtransport. You could learn about geography and history. You could discover thesecrets of agriculture, forestry, and fishing or find out how industry andmining managed to create their products. And, just as my grandmother did, youcould familiarize yourself with music and literature, great art andarchitecture, with famous men and women of all ages, and, most importantlyperhaps, with childrens favorite world of giants and dwarfs, elves and gnomes,riddles and fairy tales! In fact, over 11,000 Liebig cards were issuedeventually and, as a group, they made up a magical kind of Internet that heldinformation on just about everything one might want to know.

This book is the second ofthe SURFING A MAGICAL INTERNET series that resurrects the collections mygrandmother left to me and that, quite miraculously, survived both World War Iand World War II. Visiting grandmothers world provides a fascinating lookbackwards into a time that came long before the one we now inhabit. And eventhough the world has changed greatly in the last 150 years or so, there is somuch we can learn from grandmothers picture books, just as I did some 75 yearsago when she used to google her treasured trove of cards to tell me everythingabout the big wide world. I hope that readers will be as charmed andmesmerized by the beautiful pictures as I was and that my associated commentswill help another generation of children and adults discover fascinating thingsabout our world then and now. This book, of course, focuses on all sorts ofmental challenges that delighted children during my grandmothers youth. Over150 pictures confront readers with riddles they can try to solve, present themwith illustrations of proverbs they must identify, or depict scenes in whichsomething is missing that they are urged to find. There are new conundrums onevery page and there is fun for children of all ages. Even the book covercontains a mental challenge; can you see it?

1. Solvethe Riddle

Here is the first of24 pictures that poses a riddle.

Can you solve it? Dontrush; take your time.

An answer is always providedon the following page,

just before the nextriddle.

The FerrymansDilemma

A man who runs a ferry across a river, but his small boatcan only accommodate one item or passenger at a time. At the end of the day, hewants to go home to that pretty little house on the other side, next to thechurch. He has a goat, a wolf, and a cabbage and wants to take them home aswell. Clearly, he has to make three separate crossings from here to theopposite shore, but how can he keep the three alive and in good shape?

If he takes the wolf first and leaves the goat behind, thegoat will eat the cabbage. If he takes the cabbage first and leaves the twoanimals behind, the wolf will eat the goat. If he takes the goat first andthen comes back to get the cabbage, the goat will eat it the moment he turnshis back to fetch the wolf. And if he takes the goat first and then comes backto get the wolf, the wolf will eat the goat when he goes back to get thecabbage! What is the poor guy to do?

Solution: TheFerrymans Dilemma