Louise Lewis asks whether ways of computing the nine times table would work in other number bases (Letters, 7 June). With other bases you get the same quirky results, but for different multipliers. For base 7 it would be the six times table, for base 6 the five times etc. Instead of the digits in the multiples adding up to nine as they do for multiples of nine in base 10, they will now add up to six and five respectively. That the multiplier is one less than the base is the clue which explains why these novelties occur. Such fun.
Ian Harley
Fair Oak, Hampshire
• Your obituary for Anthony Head (7 June) failed to mention one of his most iconic roles, that of the evil Mr Gently Benevolent in BBC Radio 4’s Bleak Expectations. His soft, sardonic laugh – “Hur hur hur” – will never be forgotten by true Head anoraks.
Paul Thompson
Perth
• Further to the “Is this train going to Speke?” joke (Letters, 9 June), there is a similar one in these parts – “Is this bus going to Jump?” – about a village near Barnsley.
Sally Goldsmith
Sheffield
• Vegemite was first produced in 1922, Marmite in 1902. Can Kathy Lette explain how the latter is an “imitation” of the former (The hill I will die on: Marmite is an insipid English imitation. Vegemite is the true Aussie hero, 9 June)?
Richard Worrall
Maidenhead, Berkshire
• Never mind the merits of Vegemite over Marmite; as a proud dual national, I maintain that the Swiss version, Cenovis, leaves all other yeast extracts standing!
Nicole Lipczynski
Sutton, London
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