Alice in Wonderland

i am sure many of you know these already, but i thought it would be fun to look at again.
i have to read Alice in Wonderland for a mathematics course (real analysis). there are numerous logical and mathematical puzzles in the story... most of which seem like nonsense to the typical reader.
here is a simple one - feel free to post more if you know one.
Q. How can you arrange 10 cakes in 5 rows with 4 cakes in each row?
[ August 19, 2003: Message edited by: Greg Harris ]

My ASCII art is not very good, but:

My ASCII art is not very good, but:
i am glad you got it because i had no idea how i was going to post the answer.

okay... here is a good one.
Let me see: four times five is twelve, and four times six is thirteen, and four times seven is -- oh dear! I shall never get to twenty at that rate!
that sounds like complete nonsense... but the math is actually correct! so, the question is:
Q. what is 4*7 using this logic?

If you like that then you should read Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid. This was practically required reading at MIT during the 80s.
--Mark

our instructor mentioned that book, too... but he did not require us to read it. now that you have mentioned it as well, i think i will pick it up.

well, i guess i should post the answer... i do not know how anyone came up with this (without asking lewis carroll).
4*5 = 12 (base 18)
4*6 = 13 (base 21)
4*7 = 14 (base 24)