Answer:
The first of these
puzzles is based on a similar
principle,
though it is
really much easier, because the condition that nine of the stamps
must
be of different values makes their selection a simple matter, though
how
they are to be placed requires a little thought or trial until one
knows
the rule respecting putting the fractions in the corners.
I give the
solution.
I also show the
solution to the second stamp
puzzle.
All the
columns,
rows, and diagonals add up 1s.
6d.
There is no stamp on one square,
and the conditions did not forbid this omission.
The stamps
at present
in circulation are these:—½d.,
1d.,
1-½d.,
2d.,
2-½d.,
3d.,
4d.,
5d.,
6d.,
9d.,
10d.,
1s.,
2s.
6d.,
5s.,
10s.,
£1, and £5. In the first
solution the numbers are in arithmetical
progression—1, 1-½, 2, 2-½, 3,
3-½, 4, 4-½, 5.
But any nine
numbers will form a magic square if we can write them thus:
where the
horizontal differences are all alike and
the
vertical
differences all alike, but not necessarily the same as the
horizontal.
This happens in the case of the second solution, the numbers of which
may
be written:
Also in the case of
the solution to the Coinage
Puzzle, the
numbers are, in shillings:
If there are to be
nine different
numbers,
0 may occur once.
Yet one might construct squares with negative
numbers, as follows:
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