******* 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: In Search of a Magic Number RAY: This next puzzler is mathematical in nature. Imagine two numbers, such that their product is equal to their sum. I'll give you two numbers: 5 and 1 and 1/4. You add them, and you get 6 and 1/4. You multiply them, and you also get 6 and 1/4. TOM: You do? RAY: You do! Now, I'm going to put on one additional condition. Both numbers have to be the same. For example, let's take 3/7ths as the number. 3/7ths and 3/7ths add up to 6/7. But, unfortunately, they multiply to 9/49ths. But if it worked, then, well, that would be the kind of answer I'm looking for. TOM: So you're looking for whole numbers as well as fractions? RAY: Any number you can think of. Fractions, irrational numbers, you name it, we'll use it. Is there such a number that if you multiply it by itself the product is equal to adding it to itself? If so, what are those numbers? Of course zeros are not allowed, because everybody knows zero plus zero is equal to zero times zero. Zero is disqualified. But what are the other numbers? Think you know the answer? 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? The Self-Adjusting Mystery Clock RAY: This puzzler was sent in by a fellow named Mark Sylvia. Here it is: "It used to be that, when we changed into or out of Daylight Savings Time, you had to manually change all the clocks and appliances in your house. "Now, many of them are wired into sources that change them for us. So, for example, you change your wall clock and your microwave clock, but your computer, your cell phone and your cable TV clocks automatically show the newly changed time without your having to do anything. "There is, however, a certain clock in my house that is not wired into anything. In fact, it runs on a battery, and it reads correctly all the time without my having to change it every spring and fall at the time changes. "The question is, how does it do this? "And the hint is, I didn't have one of these when I lived in Kansas." 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.
