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OOHHH! All of you forgot to allow her time to
get off the bridge before it blows up. So the answer should be 19 minutes + the
time for her to walk a safe distance from the impending explosion. That's why my
answer of 20 minutes is the correct one. ha Love it .
Donnie.
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Thursday, June 05, 2003 12:26
AM
Subject: Re: Puzzler of the week
19 minutes. Johnson 2
minutes, Claudette 1 minute back, Kangaroo 5 minutes, Claudette 1 minute
back and mustard 10 minutes. total = 19. Claudette accompanies
each man over and has to return twice thus her 2 minutes.
John
At 05:38 PM 06/04/2003, Scott MacLean
wrote:
This week's
puzzler:
It was a dark, moonless night in France, 1943, deep
within German-held territory. Out of the inky shadows comes Claudette, the
beautiful French resistance fighter, followed by three downed Allied crew
members, who she must get back into friendly hands. They must cross a
bridge, and they know the Germans are not far behind. It's an old,
treacherous bridge, and they have only one flashlight among them to see. The
bridge can support only two of them at a time. Three on the bridge, and it's
curtains.
Pairs crossing can do so only as quickly as the slower
member of the pair, because they need the flashlight to see. Each time a
pair crosses, someone has to return with the flashlight, until they're all
safely across.
Unfortunately, the three downed airmen are injured.
Here are the times each person takes to cross the bridge: Claudette can do
it in a minute. Major Johnson has a twisted ankle, and takes 2 minutes.
Captain Kangaroo got shot up pretty bad. He has to hop on one foot, and it
takes him 5 minutes. Colonel Mustard is in worse shape. It takes him 10
minutes to cross the bridge.
Claudette has rigged the bridge with
explosives so that their pursuers can't follow. She's about to set the
timer."
Here's the puzzler: What's the shortest time she can set and
get everyone safely across the bridge before it blows up?
Last
week's puzzler:
It was an early fall evening, when my wife drove
our '94 Explorer. About three blocks from home, it started making a great
screeching, screaming noise, with smoke coming out from under the hood. My
wife turned off the car, and, of course, called me for help.
I was
home in my jammies, but I got in my car and drove over there. Being the guy,
I was obliged to open the hood, and I tried to look for something
wrong...even though it was dark. It was, after all, a dark and stormy
night.
On a hunch, I reached in and touched something that should
have been cool. Instead of touching something cool, though, I got a
second-degree burn on my finger. Wounded and whimpering, I walked home,
while my wife continued her trip in my car, leaving the Explorer smoking and
smoldering by the roadside.
After putting ice on my finger, the pain
subsided enough so that I could think straight. I walked back to the
Explorer. I adjusted something on the dashboard, started the engine, and
drove home with no problems.
So, what did I do?
Last week's
puzzler answer:
I turned off the defroster because what was wrong
was that the air-conditioner compressor had seized.
Lots of people
don't know that most modern cars only have one belt that runs everything,
and the air-conditioner pulley is turning all the time, whether the air
conditioner is on or off. When you turn it on, you engage a magnetic clutch
that makes the pulley that's spinning via the belt turn the compressor. But
if the compressor is seized, the pulley can no longer turn and the belt will
begin to screech and slip around that seized pulley-- and cause smoke and
eventually fire.
If you turn off the air conditioner that compressor
pulley will just go back to freewheeling because the magnetic clutch is
disengaged.
The reason the thing was hot enough to burn his finger,
was because the defroster was on and that belt was screeching over that
seized pulley. Then, as soon as he turned off the defroster, the belt
stopped screeching.
Don't forget, it was a dark and stormy night and
the windows were probably getting fogged up, so you would turn on the
defroster-- which on most cars also turns on the air conditioner. But,
turning off the air conditioner would also be an acceptable
answer.
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