EVER since he had got his first toy compass, Einstein’s direction in life had changed — he had a troubled childhood, affected by a maddening desire to investigate all that happened in the universe. It takes an Einstein to upturn Newton in his grave and shoot past light years ahead of him, speaking relatively.

Much as we admire him for suggesting a mode of travel faster than light, he was not the first one to propose it, though he came closest to explaining it. There are many who are trying to prove that he was wrong, but he sleeps peacefully as ever in his final resting place. Would you blame Newton for every plane crash because he discovered the principle of gravity? Then, why blame uncle Einstein for Hiroshima because he gave the mass-energy relation (E=MC²), when he wasn’t even part of the Manhattan Project, under which, the first atom bomb was developed.

He discovered that space and time were flexible and curved, so, it is possible that there is a gate somewhere to cross over to the past or the future. As a child, Einstein showed us the future much before he had one. As an old man, he used to help schoolchildren with their mathematics homework.

Once, his granny won a prize and gave her winnings to her children in order that the first child received 100 DM and one tenth of the remainder. The second child received 200 DM and one tenth of the remainder. The third child received 300 DM and one tenth of the remainder… and so on. This way, she divided the money equally among all her children. You had to tell her how many were they and how much money did she have.

An equation to find out the prize money can be as follows:

100+ 1 / 10 (x-100) = 200 + 1 / 10 [(x-300)-1 / 10(x-100)];

100 + x / 10 - 10 = 200 + 1 / 10 (x - 300 - x / 10 + 10);

x /10 + 90 = 200 + 1 / 10 (-290 + 9x / 10);

x / 10 + 90 = 200 - 29 + 9x / 100;

x /10 + 90 = 171 + 9x /100;

x / 10 = 81 + 9x / 100; x / 100 = 81; x = 8100

The first child gets: 100 + 1 / 10 (8100 - 100) = 900 DM. Therefore, if every child gets the same amount, so: DM 8100 / DM 900 = DM 9, which means there are nine children.

Countless readers sent in their solutions, some of which were half-solved. The persons who arrived first were: Amandeep Jindal of Ludhiana, Dinesh Goel Sr, Rosy, Charanpal Singh, Dr Lokesh Handa (with grace marks), Rajeev Kumar Tak, Dinesh Goel Jr, Ravinder Mittal, Shubhangi, Subhash Goyal, Ajay Bhatia, Bharat Bhushan Singh Mittal and Varun Rishi Kapoor, Neha Goyal, Puneet Sharma, Gurtej Singh Grewal, Madan Lal Dipta of Keeth village near Shimla, Parul Singla of Patiala, Rohit Pardasani, Himanshu Sharma and Jinni Goel. Write at The Tribune or adityarishi99@yahoo.co.in.

— Aditya Rishi