Puzzler of the week

[Scott MacLean]

This week's puzzler:

You don't need to know very much about cars to get the answer to this puzzler.

Monday morning, I showed up at the shop and the phone rang. It was an irate customer.

It's Chuck. He says, "My Volvo's out front. I had it towed back from New Hampshire. It conked out. It won't run."

I asked, "What happened?"

Chuck said, "My wife, our son and I and my mother-in-law were going up to New Hampshire to look at the foliage. Suddenly, the car began to sputter, especially on hills, and lose power. It was even sputtering and losing power on the level ground. I happened to notice that the gas gauge was on E, so I figured I might as well get gas.

"I pulled into a gas station and filled up the tank. I drove away and everything was fine for about five miles. Then the same thing started happening again.

"That's when we decided to give up. We left the car. We had it towed back to your shop."

Chuck added, "About a month or so ago, you guys put in a new fuel pump and I'm pretty sure that that's what's wrong. I don't know how it happened, but the gas gauge isn't working any more either, because when I filled it up, the needle didn't move."

So, I pushed Chuck's Volvo into the garage and verified that it didn't start, and that it was not getting gas. I turned the key and it got a spark, but I put the fuel pressure tester on the fuel rail�and there was no fuel pressure.

Next, I inspected the fuel line, thinking there might have been a break. It was fine. While checking the fuel line, I noticed that there were little spurts of gasoline and mostly air coming out of the line. I concluded that the pump was bad.

But before we ordered a new one, I called Chuck. I asked him to tell me what had happened.

I asked him one question.

He answered, "Yes."

And I told him, "I know what's wrong with your car."

In 10 minutes or less, I had his car running and the gas gauge working.

What did I ask Chuck?

Last week's puzzler:

One day last week my brother awoke from his mid-morning office nap to discover there had been a power failure.  Tommy knew this because his digital clock was flashing "12:00."

Now, there are a lot of ways today that Tommy could have found out the exact time. But while he was devising a plan of action, he happened to walk by the mirror and realized that he was in urgent need of a haircut.  So rather than deal with correcting his digital clock, he decided to walk to the barbershop.

My brother always walks at a very predictable pace, just one foot ahead of the other, hands behind his back.

At the barbershop, there was a working clock on the wall. There were a couple of guys in front of him, so Tommy sat there and caught up on his magazines.

Finally, he got his haircut. He left the barbershop, walked home and set his clock to the right time.

We don't know how fast Tommy walks, and we don't care.

We don't know how far away the barbershop is -- and we don't care.

So, how does he set his clock to the correct time? 

Last week's puzzler answer:

When he leaves his office, he sets the clock, the clock that had been flashing. And let's say he sets it for noon. So, he just presses set and the thing starts keeping time from that point on. At which point, he walks to the barbershop. When he gets to the barbershop, he notices what time it is. And he sits there and reads his Field & Stream magazine and True Romance, True Detective, gets his haircut and he leaves. He notices what time it is then. So he knows how much time he spent at the barbershop either waiting or getting his haircut.

When he gets home, he knows how much time has elapsed since he left because he set the clock. Let's say, for example, he set the clock at noon. When he got back, it was three o'clock according to his clock in his office. So he knows that altogether he's been gone for three hours. And he knows how long he spent in the barbershop which was two hours.

If he was gone for three and spent two hours, he spent half an hour to get there. Half an hour to get back.

So if he knows that, for example, he left the barbershop at five, then he had to have arrived home at 5:30. He sets his clock as what? Time for his late afternoon nap.

_______________________
Scott MacLean
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
ICQ: 9184011
http://www.nerosoft.com