Crossword aficionados will be delighted to find a morsel of their basic diet here again. As usual, some of the clues are - to a non-crossword person - wonderfully obscure. (I thought I knew the answer to 13 Down, but my choice of word didn't fit... )
1 The tour list (9) 2 The best way to reduce tower oscillation (6) 3 A method with a regular treble but not the same number of blows in each position (8) 4 Nationality of 22 Down (7) 5 An instrument board (6) 6 Wood heated in the absence of air (8) 7 Eg, the Blue Line (5) 13 Could describe an activity like ringing (9) 15 Ancient kings (8) 17 Racehorses may be, but ringers, never! (8) 18 Good ringers should make allowance for this in beginners (7) 20 Describes the embryo (6) 21 Thursday tours co-ordinator (6) 22 King, Roman puppet, held responsible for the massacre of the innocents (5)
8 They point to Heaven! (8) 9 On to the land (6) 10 Ancient South American people (4) 11 The cause of the downfall of many a touch of Stedman Triples! (10) 12 Remember what Robert Chadburn told us? (13) 14 Seven is the clue (7) 16 Rung to celebrate their divorce from Leicestershire? (7) 19 St Matthew (Warks) whose name shows evidence of an earlier religious house (13) 23 The second Sunday before Lent (10) 24 How most ringers like their handstroke leads (4) 25 Queen of George the 1st or Queen of Hearts? (6) 26 News - one way or another! (7)
Answers in the January 2012 Newsletter
El Presidente writes:-
It would have been nice if a correct answer had come from other than science graduates, but nevertheless there were three gentlemen and one lady of that learned species who got it right: Michael Gray, Michael Sporton, Stella Southam and James Harris (son of Brian Harris, who is an ex-pat 'Lad of the Vale', having grown up in, and learnt to ring at, Bretforton. Brian now lives and rings at Swindon. Ed).
The first thing to realise was that the position of the flagpole denoted that the field was cyclic, ie the corners are on a circle, with the flagpole at its centre. Then, if you don't remember it from school, you look up Brahmagupta's formula from your encyclopaedia, or these days the internet:-
A=√(S-a)(S-b)(S-c)(S-d) where S is the semi-perimeter and a, b, c, d are the sides of the field, ie S=½(a+b+c+d)
| So | S | =½(52+44+56+48) | = 100 metres |
| Therefore:- | A | =√(100-52)(100-44)(100-56)(100-48) | =√48x56x44x52 |
| =√6150144 | =2479.9484 sq.metres |
Michael Gray has done some interesting conversions. A = nearly 0.25 Hectares, which is 0.613 acres or 2966 sq. yards. In view of the fact that Michael also sent a proof of the formula and he was first anyway, I have decided that he should win the prize.
For further interest the distance from the flagpole to the corners (r) can be found by:
r = (ab+cd)(ac+bd)(ad+bc) (and a great deal of hard work!) 4A = 35.497 metres
(Simples...!! Ed)