SOLVING A 'SH' PROBLEM - 1 (It is not maths or physics!!)

Today, after college, I jumped into a moving local vehicle with a particularly lovely college girl inside and I really do mean lovely – decent lips synchronizing her calm face with a long, and obviously, loose sweater on.

I had just finished with The blind banker of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle so the momentum that Sherlock Holmes left on my brain was still fresh. I decided to ask myself a question – ‘Is she of 11^th standard or of 12^th standard?’

I thought I could make that out easily. But NO, it really takes somewhat good meditation! The neatness of her clothes showed that she had just washed them, which was obvious after a long vacation and that provided me no hint at all. The shoes, as I saw them, rarely had a deep line of impression (created obviously by continuous walking) which suggested me that they were newly bought though they were not as clean as they might be. Why not clean? An easy guess – the streets of Ktm valley! So I concluded they had to be new – which allowed me to be inclined towards the ‘11’ side. But there was a possibility that she might have bought one in 12. So I had to search for the other hints supporting either of those possibilities.

Her dress had no signs of any strand coming out – neat and untouched. The crease was distinct and the dress looked pretty new. But the pants would look new anyhow. So I had to go to her shirts. Unfortunately her sweaters were on. Ahh sweaters! No strand coming out whatsoever - distinctively very new. But that would not provide me enough probability to answer the question. I had to find something convincing. God, I was staring at her and I don’t know if she saw me; but that did not bother, not a bit – I wanted to deduce like SH! Then I got to her shirts. Her collar – they were quite hard which I figured out by the unusual curve and confirmed by a similar experiment on mine. 1,2,3 … That’s it – She’s of 11^th standard.

But when everything was working well, one thing did not satisfy (apparently, as it seems now!). Her bag! It was an old bag used not less than a year. Normally when people finish their schooling, they demand new things. If everything was new, why not bag? Does it mean she is of 12? No. The chains – the chains of the bag were working perfectly as I saw them working when she opened that up to take her purse out. So, when the chains were well and the color not bad, why would anyone waste money on that. The color suggested me that she might have bought it when she was in 10 or, because of ‘extreme’ carefulness provided by her gender, in 9.

So everything was okay – I answered to myself ‘11’! The other supportive reason for my confidence was that I had not seen her before; which, according to my knowledge in mathematics of probability, should have been at least once if she were of 12!

Then lucky for me - I was able to know my result. There was a call in her mobile phone and she said – ‘Did you understand … what was that … Hund’s rule? I hate chemistry!”

Bravo! SH Theory works!

See you soon with my next blog!