******* 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 Car Talk Puzzler: The Hall of 20,000 Ceiling Lights RAY: This next puzzler is from my "ceiling light" series. Imagine, if you will, that you have a long, long corridor that stretches out as far as the eye can see. In that corridor, attached to the ceiling are lights that are operated with a pull cord. There are gazillions of them, as far as the eye can see. Let's say there are 20,000 lights in a row. They're all off. Somebody comes along and pulls on each of the chains, turning on each one of the lights. Another person comes right behind, and pulls the chain on every second light. TOM: Thereby turning off lights 2, 4, 6, 8 and so on. RAY: Right. Now, a third person comes along and pulls the cord on every third light. That is, lights number 3, 6, 9, 12, 15, etcetera. Another person comes along and pulls the cord on lights number 4, 8, 12, 16 and so on. Of course, each person is turning on some lights and turning other lights off. If there are 20,000 lights, at some point someone is going to come skipping along and pull every 20,000th chain. When that happens, some lights will be on, and some will be off. Can you predict which ones will be on? Think you know the answer? Drop Ray 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? Ray's Matchstick Puzzler RAY: This puzzler is from the matchstick series. Imagine, if you will, that you have four matchsticks of equal length. From those, you can easily make a square. At each of the vertices, there is a right angle, or a ninety-degree angle, so there are four right angles. TOM: I'm with you! RAY: Now, using those same four matchsticks, make not 4 but 16 ninety-degree angles. You might say, "Can I use the third dimension?" You can use any dimension you want. I should mention, you are not allowed to fold, bend, break, staple, or mutilate the matches in any other way. TOM: Can you use mirrors? RAY: No, but that shows you're on the right track. Ready for the answer? Here you go: 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 AAAŠ. 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 via the link at the top of http://www.cartalk.com/content/features/hybrid/ *********************************** 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.
