Problems.

1. During the night, A, though sleeping with B, dreams of C. C stands at the furthest extremity or (if the image is considered two-dimensionally) the apogee of a curved driveway, perhaps a dream refraction of the driveway of the house that had once been their shared home. Her figure, though small in perspective, is vivid, clad in tomato-red summer dress; her head is thrown back, her hands are on her hips, and her legs have taken a wide, confident stance. She is flaunting herself, perhaps laughing; his impression is of intense female vitality, his emotions is of longing. He awakes troubled. The sleep of B beside him is not disturbed; she rests in the certainty that A loves her. Indeed, he has left C for her, to prove it.
PROBLEM: Which has he more profoundly betrayed, B or C?

2. A lives seven blocks form the Laundromat he favors. He lives 3.8 miles from his psychiatrist, the average time of transit to whom, in thick afternoon traffic, is 22 minutes. The normal session, with allowance for pre- and post-therapy small talk, lasts 55 minutes. The normal wash cycle in the type of top-loader the Laundromat favors runs for 33 minutes. The psychiatrist and the Laundromat are in the same outbound direction.
PROBLEM: Can A put his laundry in a washer on the way to his psychiatrist and return without finding his wet clothes stolen?
PROBLEM FOR EXTRA CREDIT: If the time of the psychiatric appointment is 3 p.m., and city block is considered to be one-eighth (1/8) of a mil, and if A arranges the two purgative operations serially, placing the laundry second, and if, further, the drying cycle purchasable for quarter (25с) lasts a quarter of an hour (15 minutes) and the average load requires two such cycles or else is too dump to be carried home without osmotically moistening the chest of the carrier, at what time will A be able to pour himself a drink? Round the nearest minute.
Calculate the time for two drinks.
Calculate the time for three, with wet chest.

3. A has four children. Two in college, two attend private school. Annual college expenses amount to $6,300 each, those private school to $4,700. A’s annual income is n. Three-sevenths (3/7) of n are taken by taxes, federal and state. One third (1/3) goes to C, who is having the driveway improved. Total educational expenses are equivalent to five twenty-firsts (5/21) of n. The coast of each week of a psychiatric session is $45, of a Laundromat session $1.10. For proposes of computation, consider these A’s only expenses.
PROBLEM: How long can A go on like this? Round the nearest week.

4. The price of peastone is $13 a cubic yard. A truck-load consists of 3 ¼ cubic yards. C’s driveway is 8’6” wide and describes an ellipse of which the foci are two old croquet stakes 31 yards apart. A line perpendicular to a line drawn between the stakes and intersecting this line at midpoint strikes the edge of the driveway contractor. He is a big man and wears 12 size shoes. The average desirable depth, he says, of peastone in suburban driveway is one and one-half inches (1 1/2”). Any more, you get troughing; any less, you don’t get that delicious sound, like marbles being swished in a coffee can.
In addition to the ellipse there is a straight spur connecting it to pleasant Avenue. The length of the spur is to the radius of the ellipse as √2 is to π.
In addition to the base cost per truckload there is $10.50 an hour for the driver, plus an occasional gratuitous, graciously offered beer, @ $1.80 per six-pack.
PROBLEM: Why is C doing all this?

5. A’s psychiatrist thinks he is experiencing growth, measurable in psychic distance attained from C. However, by Tristan’s Law appealingness is inversely proportional to attainability. Attainability is somewhat proportional to psychic distance. As a psychic mass M is reduced in apparent size by the perspectives of recession, its gravitational attraction proportionally increases. There exists a curve whereby gravitational attraction overpowers reason, though the apparent source of attraction may be, like the apparent position of all but the nearest stars, an illusion.
PROBLEM: Plot this curve. Find the starlike point where A’s brain begins to bend.
HELPFUL HINTS: The “somewhat” above translates to 3/7.
Midas’s Law: Possession diminishes perception of value, immediately.

6. B is beautiful. Clear blue eyes, blue denim miniskirt, dear little blue veins behind her silken knees. C is receding rapidly, a tomato-red speck in an untroubled azure. A’s for children have all been awarded scholarships. His psychiatrist has moved his couch to walnut-paneled, shag-carpeted quarters above the Laundromat, up just one quick flight of 22 steps. The price of peastone has dropped dramatically, because of the recession. It is a beautiful day, a bright blue Monday.
PROBLEM: Something feels wrong. What is it?