******* The Car Talk Puzzler Psychic Friends Network******* A note from Car Talk Plaza: While the Puzzler enjoys a well-earned (okay, that's debatable) vacation, we'll be featuring a few of our especially scintillating, challenging and brain-achingly confounding classic puzzlers. We hope you enjoy them!
>From the Desk of Maury Maille Puzzler Tower Car Talk Plaza Hahvahd Squayah Our Fair City This Week's Classic Puzzler: Shipwrecked Saga RAY: A family of four and their dog are trapped on an island, when rising floodwaters tear out the bridge that they had used just a few hours earlier. When they had just given up hope the son says, "I've got a small boat and oars." But their joy was short-lived. The manufacturer's instructions printed on the boat stern say that the boat can carry only 180 pounds. The dog is the only one who can swim. The father weighs 170. The mother says she weighs 130 but it's more like 155. The son is 90 pounds, the daughter is 80, and the dog is 15. TOM: The dog is going to have to take the boat back to the port! RAY: Here's the question: Is there any way that the family can be saved? TOM: We know that they can be saved! We would never give a puzzler that didn't have a happy ending. RAY: Right. So, what's the fewest number of crossings they have to make to save everybody? 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 Ray obfuscate the puzzler in person? Listen anytime, at http://www.cartalk.com/content/puzzler/ ************ Remember last week's puzzler? Dividing Time RAY: Draw a clock face on a piece of paper. Using Arabic numerals, put the appropriate numbers at 12, 1, 2, 3 and so on. Now, somewhere on the clock face, draw two lines. In doing so, you're going to divide the clock face into segments, which contain numbers. TOM: Do the lines have to go from one edge of the clock face to another? RAY: Yes. So, when you draw the lines, you will wind up with either three or four segments of clock face. If the lines intersect someplace, you will wind up with four sections. If they don't intersect, you will wind up with three sections. The question is where do you draw the lines so that the sums of the numbers in each section are equal? And here's the answer: 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 *************** Write Tom and Ray--Please! Been meaning to write us a witty, brilliant, evocative, insightful letter? Excellent! We're not getting any of those things from the chumps hanging around Car Talk Plaza. For that matter, we'd settle for anything better than the usual schlock Tommy reads on the air. So, what are you waiting for? Write Tom and Ray right now at http://www.cartalk.com/email/email.html ******************* Useful information alert: How to Get a Free Car Talk CD or Booklet Tired of paying auto club dues to an outfit that lobbies against environmental causes? Check out Better World Club -- and in the process get a Car Talk booklet or CD for free! Better World is an auto club with genuinely decent values -- unlike some others we could name... Whose initials happen to be AAA. Better World Club cares about... *Your environmental interests -- it gives 1% of its revenue to environmental clean up and advocacy. *Your consumer interests -- it even offers discounts on hybrid rental cars. *And it has the nation's only bicycle roadside assistance program. Dump your AAA membership and join Better World! If you join via the Car Talk web site now, you'll get a free Car Talk CD, or a copy of our booklet, 10 Ways You May Be Ruining Your Car without Even Knowing It. Check out Better World Club now 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.
