Puzzler of the week

[Scott MacLean]

This week's puzzler:

It's 1936. Europe is on the brink of yet another war. In a secret location in Germany, German officers are gathered around the table with the designers of its new personnel carrier. They're going over every little detail, leaving no stone unturned. They want everything to be flawless.

One of the officers stands up and he says, "I have a question about the fan belt.  How long do you expect this belt to last?"

The engineer replies, "Thirty to forty thousand kilometers, Colonel."

The officer says, "Not good enough! We need it to last sixty thousand kilometers."

The engineer says, "It's merely a matter of taking the belt off and turning it over, because this is a flat belt. Not a V belt."

The colonel replies, "That's unacceptable. Our soldiers will be engaged in battle. We can't ask them to be changing fan belts in the middle of the battle."

So all the engineers huddle together, and they come up with a clever way to extend the life of the belt to 60 thousand kilometers. They do not change the material of the belt. In two minutes, they have a solution to the problem that satisfies the colonel.

What is the solution?

Last week's puzzler:

You've been invited to go on a camping trip in the woods with 30 of your closest buddies.

You pile into your cars and drive to the cabin. The next morning, everyone gets up and decides that Cookie is going to make homemade pancakes for all 30 of you. But, he needs exactly two gallons of water.

You are sent to the well to fetch the two gallons. However, you have no measuring device. When you get to the well, you discover there are two jugs there. One says 13 gallons, and the other says 7 gallons. Your job, if you choose to accept it, is to come back with exactly two gallons of water.

All you�ve got are earthenware jugs. You�re only allowed one trip.

What do you do?

Last week's puzzler answer:

Here's how you would do it. You take the seven-gallon container and you fill it up and you pour the contents of it into the 13-gallon jug. And then you do that again. And when you do that, it's not all going to fit. You'll have filled the 13-gallon container, and you will have one gallon left over in the seven-gallon container.

You put that aside. You pour out the 13-gallon container. So now you have one gallon in the seven-gallon container, and the 13-gallon container is empty. You then take that one gallon and you pour it into the 13-gallon container, leaving room for 12 more gallons. You then fill the seven-gallon container again and pour the entire seven gallons into the 13 gallon container.

Now you're up to eight gallons, and you say, "Mmm. Eight. Room for how many more?" Five. You then fill the seven-gallon container and you pour all but two gallons in, because there's only room for five in the 13-gallon container.

You'll have two gallons left, and if you don't trip and fall on the way back to the cabin, they'll be able to make the pancakes.

_______________________
Scott MacLean
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ICQ: 9184011
http://www.nerosoft.com