The Lemon Fool

Bought a new (well, 1 year old) car this year with DAB so am indulging in the (previously unlistened-to) curates egg that is Radio 4 Extra on journeys.

Listened to a (understandably) short-lived programme Circa 1980s that the panel set and receive riddles to solve. There are two that intrigued me as I'd never come across before, although neither are particularly difficult to solve and some of you regulars probably have met them before.

1. Some people share out 24 eggs between themselves. How many do each get?

2. What is the letter in the blank? There is a mathematical and also a non-mathematical answer. The non-mathematical answer proved tricky to the panel 30 years ago but should be a doddle now.

A _ D F G H J K L

Spoiler:

1. The word ‘between’ necessarily means just two people, so the answer is 12. Any more would be ‘among’.

Pedantically,

Cinelli

cinelli wrote:Spoiler:

Yes indeed. I found your high-contrast spoiler impossible to avoid reading.

Pedantically,

Cinelli

Only works if a pedant set the question. Try using that logic in a typical pub quiz and see how far it gets you.

But as soon as you introduce linguistic pedantry, you should also point out that the question neither says nor implies equal shares. So I don't think your answer works.

How many do each get?
OK that could mean 'A gets 3, B gets 4...' etc, but in context it implies a single answer . I think

A Google for between brings up;
5.
by combining the resources or actions of (two or more people or other entities).
"we have created something between us"
shared by (two or more people or things).
"they had drunk between them a bottle of Chianti"

Although I think the answer probably relates to the more correct use of 'between'

Yes, Cinelli has it with the definition of 'between'. 'Among or Amongst' would be alternatives if you wanted three or more. Most definitions of 'between' come up with two entities.

I'll also accept 'n' and '24-n' where 0 =< n =< 24 as I omitted the word 'equally'. You try texting it all into your 'phone with it balanced on one leg whilst driving round a roundabout listening to R4Xtra and balancing your coffee on your other leg.

Now the easy one

A _ D F G H J K L
It's C.

AleisterCrowley wrote:Now the easy one

A _ D F G H J K L
It's C.

Um, look down. C is merely a pattern, but why should that be easier now than in the 1980s? S would seem a much more obvious candidate to have become easier!

AndyPandy wrote:... You try texting it all into your 'phone with it balanced on one leg whilst driving round a roundabout listening to R4Xtra and balancing your coffee on your other leg.

No, thanks - and if I were somehow to commit that traffic offense, I certainly wouldn't confess to it on a public bulletin board!

Gengulphus

UncleEbenezer wrote:

AleisterCrowley wrote:Now the easy one

A _ D F G H J K L
It's C.

Um, look down. C is merely a pattern, but why should that be easier now than in the 1980s? S would seem a much more obvious candidate to have become easier!

ah Qwerty, surprised that didn't jump out at me

I got the non-mathematical answer for 2, but am stumped as to the mathematical answer. Any clues?

well one answer, valid, but not necessarily 'correct' is it's just the pattern (if C is the answer);
letter/space /2 letter/space/3 letter/space/4 letter etc etc
the last 4 letter group being truncated in the question (which doesn't make it less valid IMO !!)

Yep 'S' for the keyboard answer, 'C' for the pattern. Not too taxing.

but why should that be easier now than in the 1980s?

Whatever one of the panel's jobs was, she was still writing out reports longhand at that point, so not a regular typewriter user and not familiar with row 2 of a keyboard. This was still the era of PC/XT PC/AT and PS2. 1986/7 we got PS/2s for our office - 1 between two of us. PCs on every desk was something for the future.