Recently, while in London, I decided to walk down the escalator of a tube station. I did some quick calculation in my mind. I found that if I walk down twenty-six steps, I require thirty seconds to reach the bottom. However, if I am able to step down thirty-four stairs I would only require eighteen seconds to get to the bottom. If the time is measured from the moment the top step begins to descend to the time I step off the last step at the bottom.
Can you tell the height of the stairway in steps?

We have a circular dining table made of marble which had come down to us as a family heirloom. We also have some beautiful bone-china saucers that I recently brought from Japan. Diameter of. our table top is fifteen times the diameter of our saucers which are also circular. We would like to place the saucers on the table so that they neither overlap each other nor the edge of the table. How many can we place in this manner?

When my uncle in Madura died recently, he left i will, instructing his executors to divide his estate oi Rs.1,920,000 in this manner: Every son should receive three times as much as a daughter, and that every daughter should get twice as much as their mother What is my aunt’s share?

It is a small town railway station and there are 25 stations on that line. At each of the 25 stations the passengers can get tickets for any of the other 24 stations. How many different kinds of tickets do you think the booking clerk has to keep?

A man I know, who lives in my neighbourhood, travels to Chinsura everyday for his work. His wife drives him over to Howrah Station every morning and in the evening exactly at 6 p.m.She picks him up from the station and takes him home.
One day he was let off at work an hour earlier, and so he arrived at the Howrah Station at 5 p.m. instead of at 6 p.m. He started walking home. However,he met his wife enroute to the station and got into the car: They drove home arriving 10 minutes earlier than usual.
How long did the man walk, before he was picked up by his wife?

Two women were selling marbles in the market place—one at three for a paisa and other at two for a paisa. One day both of them were obliged to return home when each had thirty marbles unsold. They put together the two lots of marbles and handing them over to a friend asked her to sell them at five tot 2 paise. According to their calculation, after all. 3 for one paisa and 2 for one paisa was exactly the same as 5 for 2 paise. Now they were expecting to get 25 paise tor the marbles, as they would have got. if sold separately But much to their surprise they got only 24 paise tor the entire lot.
Now where did the one paisa go? Can you explain the mystery?