A difficult case - one of the most difficult he had ever been called upon to face - and another seven hours would solve it.

"Or whatever part of your anatomy responds to having too few hours in the day to solve too many problems."

Given years in which to mull over a problem, the slowest brain must come up with the answer; but what a human child would have seen in minutes this brute might need hours to solve.

I felt strongly about it, and I thought the hour would solve some of the problems.

Stephanie, a mere stripling of 50, thought at first she wasn't old enough for her part, but two hours of make-up, a wig and plenty of padding soon solved that problem.

Two hours of work with the make-up man solved the problem, but it was worrisome," he said.

Students, usually in groups of three, spend an hour facing a professor alone in a room, answering questions and solving problems.

Two hours of experiments had solved the first problem: not an easy one, for anything put in the sling of a traction catapult was whirled violently round before launching.

It takes hours of grueling mental effort to solve that kind of problem, but you, the reader, see only the finished product (feldspar).

It takes more than an hour to solve a mystery.