******* The Car Talk Puzzler Psychic Friends Network******* >From The Desk Of
Maury Maille Puzzler Tower Car Talk Plaza Hahvahd Squayah Our Fair City This Week's Puzzler: One Seat Left. Is It Yours? RAY: You're one of a hundred people standing in line to get onto an airplane that has 100 seats. There's a seat for every person who's in line, and each of you has a boarding pass for your assigned a seat. The first person to walk onto the plane drops his boarding pass and, instead of picking it up, decides, "I'm just going to sit anyplace." He takes a seat at random. Now, every other passenger will take either his assigned seat or, if that seat is taken, that passenger will take any seat at random. TOM: I've been on that flight! RAY: Because you are such a kind, generous, and accommodating person, you are the last passenger to walk onto the plane. Obviously, there's going to be one seat left, because everyone else is sitting in his correct seat, or not. The question is: What are the chances that you get to sit in your assigned seat? TOM: A snowball's chance in hell! RAY: I'm going make this multiple choice. A: 1 out of 2. B: 1 out of 10. C: 2 out of 50. D: 1 out of 100 E: Zero. Think you know? Drop us a note via http://www.cartalk.com/email/email.html If you're right and we select your answer, we'll ship you a $26 Shameless Commerce Gift Certificate. Want to listen to Raymond obfuscate the puzzler in person? Listen anytime, at http://www.cartalk.com/content/puzzler/ ************ Remember last week's puzzler? The Case of the Whistling Oldsmobile Delta 88 RAY: This puzzler came from a guy named Doug Veeder. Of course, I had to obfuscate it and de-clarify. Here it is. Doug writes, "When I was in college, I had my very own house painting business. It was great, because most of the jobs were in the small town where I lived, and if it rained, I got to sleep in. "It was wonderful, except for encountering the occasional hornet's nest. Near the end of the summer, I got a job 20 miles away. When I drove to the new job on the Interstate, my elderly Oldsmobile Delta 88 began howling loudly. The volume and pitch of the noise were directly related to the speed I drove. I pulled over, I opened the hood and looked around, but I couldn't find anything obviously wrong. So, I drove to the job and spent the day scraping, with a heavy heart. "When I drove home that night, though, the noise had disappeared. And it didn't come back during the 10 days it took to paint the house. I forgot about it. "The day I finished the job, I loaded up my equipment and headed for home with a fat wallet. As soon as I hit the Interstate, the howling returned. I drove home with a heavy heart and visions of my paycheck being sucked out by the transmission repair shop. When I finished unloading my equipment, I realized what the problem was. Five minutes later, I had the problem solved without opening the hood, or turning a wrench." What was causing the problem? Ready for the answer? Here you goŠ http://www.cartalk.com/content/puzzler/ So, did you figure it out? Yours in weekly puzzler torment, Maury Maille Puzzler Dissemination Specialist Car Talk Plaza ******************* Doing some car research? Via our lousy, little homepage you can... *Check important safety recalls *See what your car is worth right now *Check rebates and incentives on new cars *Search your town for new or used cars for sale *Place an ad to sell your car that'll actually be seen by people in your area *Research and compare new vehicles *Get the latest car news *Kill time until 5:00 p.m. rolls around and you can pack it in *It's all at http://www.cartalk.com *********************************** Got more time to kill? This past weekend's new, lousy Car Talk show is now on the web site, at http://www.cartalk.com/Radio/Show/ ******************** Help Ray lose the night sweats he's been getting, trying to come up with a decent puzzler each week. E-mail him your suggestion any time, via http://www.cartalk.com/email/email.html ******************** Puzzled out? You can unsubscribe to the Car Talk Puzzler Psychic Friends Network anytime at http://www.cartalk.com/ct/maillist.jsp?puzzler_list=subscribe#psychic We'll forgive you.
