Book:Journal/The Ladies' Diary
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The Ladies' Diary, or Woman's Almanac
Publisher: John Tipper
Dates
- Started publication: $1704$
- Ended publication: $1841$
Featured Articles
$1707$: Money Counting Problem
- In how long a time would a million of millions of money be in counting,
- supposing one hundred pounds to be counted every minute without intermission,
- and the year to consist of $365$ days, $5$ hours, $45$ minutes?
Ratios of Ages of Groom to Bride
- A person remarked that upon his wedding day the proportion of his own age to that of his bride was $3$ to $1$,
- but $15$ years afterwards the proportion of their ages was $2$ to $1$.
- What were their ages upon the day of their marriage?
Age Problem
- If to my age there added be,
- One half, one third, and three times three,
- Six score and ten the sum you'll see,
- Pray find out what my age will be.
Ratios of Ages of Groom to Bride
- A person remarked that upon his wedding day the proportion of his own age to that of his bride was $3$ to $1$,
- but $15$ years afterwards the proportion of their ages was $2$ to $1$.
- What were their ages upon the day of their marriage?
Largest Cylinder from given Cone
- From a given (right circular) cone to cut the greatest cylinder possible.
Lowest Common Multiple of 1 to 9
Dutchmen's Three Wives
- There came $3$ dutchmen of my acquaintance to see me, being lately married;
- they brought their wives with them.
- The men's names were Hendrick, Claas, and Cornelius;
- the women's Geertrick, Catriin, and Anna;
- but I forget the name of each man's wife.
- They told me that they had been at market, to buy hogs;
- each person bought as many hogs as they gave shillings for each hog;
- Hendrick bought $23$ hogs more than Catriin,
- and Claas bought $11$ more than Geertrick;
- likewise, each man laid out $3$ guineas more than his wife.
- I desire to know the name of each man's wife.
Hour and Minute Hand in Straight Line
- "Being at so large a distance from the dial-plate of a great clock, that I could not distinguish the figures;
- but as the hour and minute hands were very bright and glaring,"
- the correspondent noted that they were in a straight line and pointing upwards to the right.
- It was evening.
- What was the time?
Historical Note
Started life as a women's interest magazine, but evolved into a magazine of riddles, puzzles and mathematical questions.
In its later years, many of the questions published therein were difficult, and attracted the attention of high-profile mathematicians of the time.
Many questions it published were ancient. For example:
- Question $42$ was a variant of Chiu Chang Suann Jing: Example 8.
- Question $51$ was taken from Diophantus of Alexandria: Arithmetica Book $\text {V}$.
It was also frequently the case where the questions were taken directly from published sources, sometimes even mathematics textbooks.
Sources
- 1992: David Wells: Curious and Interesting Puzzles ... (previous) ... (next): The Ladies' Diary or Woman's Almanac, $\text {1704}$ – $\text {1841}$