I guess I owe readers of my last column a solution to the logic puzzle I presented last week.
Four adventurers (Alex, Brook, Chris and Dusty) need to cross a river in a small canoe. The canoe can only carry 100kg. Alex weighs 90kg, Brook weighs 80kg, Chris weighs 60kg, Dusty weighs 40kg, and they have 20kg of supplies.
There may be other answers, but this is what I came up with:
Chris and Dusty paddle across. Dusty returns. Alex paddles across. Chris returns. Chris and Dusty paddle across again. Dusty returns. Brook paddles across with the supplies. Chris returns. Chris and Dusty paddle across again.
Whenever I do logic puzzles, I think about my maternal grandfather. He loved puzzles of all kinds, crossword, jigsaw, words, numbers, but I especially remember him doing the logic puzzles.
It's especially pertinent to me now because at the time I remember him doing puzzles he would have been roughly the age I am now.
He lived to be 82 and was mentally sharp right up to the end.
Of course, I can't definitively attribute that mental acuity to his love for puzzles, but research suggests older adults who regularly engage in puzzle-solving have sharper minds than those who don't.
One study even concluded that doing crossword puzzles can delay the onset of dementia by two-and-a-half years.
For something that is often considered a time waster, there appear to be multiple benefits. Solving puzzles can improve short-term memory, enhance mood, promote relaxation, improve visual and spatial reasoning, offer stress relief and sharpen logic and reasoning.
The same has been found for board games, which reminds me of my grandfather's father. I can remember him sitting in his cottage at Regina Beach with his chess board and stacks of letters from Italy on a small table beside him.
Try to imagine that in this day and age. I regularly play backgammon online with people from all around the world. Games last about five minutes and even that is too long for some opponents.
Then there was my great-grandfather playing chess with his friends back in the old country, writing their next move down on paper, stuffing it in an envelope, putting a stamp on it and going out to the mailbox to post it, then waiting. Games could last for months.
I'm not sure about the mental benefits of that, but I imagine it's good for patience.
