Previously hidden writings of the ancient Greek mathematician Archimedes are being uncovered with powerful X-ray beams nearly 800 years after a Christian monk scrubbed off the text and wrote prayers over it, Associated Press has reported. Researchers at Stanford University’s Linear Accelerator Center in Menlo Park have been using X-rays to decipher a fragile 10th century manuscript that contains the only copies of some of Archimedes’ important works. The X-rays, generated by a particle accelerator, cause tiny amount of iron left by the original ink to glow without harming the delicate goatskin parchment. The 174-page manuscript, known as the Archimedes Palimpsest, contains the only copies of treatises on flotation, gravity and mathematics. Scholars believe a scribe copied them onto the goatskin parchment from the original Greek scrolls.

PUZZLE 1: After feasting on the first Thanksgiving dinner, the Pilgrim fathers’, who couldn’t watch football because they had no electricity, were enjoying each other’s company when the subject of livestock came up. Talk turned to trade, and before the afternoon had ended with leftovers, a series of trades ended with five of the families trading away one of the animals they had brought on the Mayflower and getting in return an animal brought to the New World by one of the others. Given the historical recording of America’s first swap meet below, can you determine the name (one was called Annie) and kind of animal each forefather family traded and which animal they received in return?

The Pilgrim family that traded Kate received the sheep in return.

The Whites acquired the horse after all the swapping was done.

Neither the cow nor the goat ended up going home to the Hopkins farm.

The forefather family that owned the horse. Thanksgiving morning ended up owning Bessie Thanksgiving night.

The Allertons were thankful to get ownership of Prissy at the end.

Molly wasn’t the animal the Hopkinses’ traded away.

Bessie wasn’t the sheep.

The Mullinses traded away the family pig; they never had ownership of Kate during all the trading back and forth. The Brewsters weren't the Pilgrims who traded away their goat.

After all the swapping back and forth, no two families ended up simply trading the animals they owned to each other.

Solutions on August 28

CORRECT ENTRIES

31 July

Vinesh Vyanjan; Pritam Bhattacharya, Cal- 94; Sunita Bandhopadhyay, Sodepur; Rajesh Kumar, Howrah; Amrapali Maitra; Arpita Bhattacharya; Ranchi, Aparajita Tonkar; Samrat Raha, New Alipore; Koel Chatterjee, Aftab Alam, Cal-16;Rukmi Maitra

PUZZLE CRACKED

The response this week (July 31) was great. Brainstormer Vinesh Vyanjan was neat and methodical in his approach. The solution to the puzzle follows.

Solution: After pulling out of Dillinger station, Rocky Railroad covers a distance of five miles to reach FortFord, where the world famous trading post is located.

From FortFord, the train runs 10 miles to reach Triple Creek, where tourists are attracted by a gold mine. After Triple Creek, the next town is Houray — a ghost town on the route. It comes after covering a distance of four miles. The next stop, after covering eight more miles, is Salt Lick — known for its rattlesnake ranch. After this, the train travels 16 miles to reach Carlswell, where the caverns are located. After covering 15 more miles, itfinally reaches the town of Copperfield.