h he previously gave you. Ask him to state the hour at
which he stops, which he will find is the one he selected for rising.
For instance; supposing your friend intends to rise at nine and gives
you four. To four you mentally add twelve and request him to start at
the hour before his getting-up time (which would be eight) and count
sixteen backwards on the face of the watch, starting with the number he
gave you--four--and when he reaches sixteen his finger or pencil will
rest upon nine, the hour he selected for getting up.

MATCH PUZZLES

EXPERIMENT WITH TEN MATCHES

Lay ten matches side by side (Fig. 7) and request some one to lift each
match singly, and passing it over two matches, cross a third match with
it until there are five crosses on the table (Fig. 8). Two matches (and
only two whether crossed or single) must be passed over at a time.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
| | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | |
Fig. 7.

\ / \ / \ / \ / \ /
\ \ \ \ \
/ \ / \ / \ / \ / \
Fig. 8.

The secret is that No. 1 must be crossed first and No. 9 second, or the
trick cannot be accomplished.

The following are the correct moves: 4 over 2 and 3 and crossed on 1; 6
over 7 and 8 and crossed on 9; 8 over 7 and 5, crossed on 3; 2 over the
3 and 5, crossed on 7; the 10 over the 9 and 7, crossed on 5.

THE MAGIC NINE

Make the figure 9 with a long tail with matches (Fig. 9) and tell a
member of the company to think of a number, which must exceed the number
of matches in the tail; and, commencing at the first match in the
latter, count mentally round the figure, stop when he reaches the number
thought of, and then, recommencing at the match he stopped at, count the
reverse way, this time avoiding the tail, and continuing on the upper
part of the 9 until he again reaches the number he selected, when you
will point to the match he has stopped at. This you can do very easily,
for if there are seven matches in the tail he will, of course, stop at
the seventh match on the left from the tail, as will be seen by the
numbering on the diagram, which assumes he thought of fifteen. Each time
the puzzle is tried vary the length of the tail by