2004 Puzzlers

12-20	PUZZLER: The Prisoners, the Warden and the Hats How does the prisoner in the front of the line know what color hat he's wearing?
Read Question       Read Answer

12-13	PUZZLER: An SUV By Any Other Name Right below the name of the vehicle was another word. The word was put on at the factory, and by the manufacturer. I say to myself, “Gee, that’s an odd word to put on a vehicle if you’re trying to sell it. What was the word?
Read Question       Read Answer

12-06	PUZZLER: A Jumble of Numbers I'm going to recite you the numbers between 1 and 100, including 1 and 100, perhaps. When I'm finished reciting all the numbers but one, I'm going to ask you which one I left out. You can't write anything down. How do you do it?
Read Question       Read Answer

11-29	PUZZLER: Saving Dougie from Chronic Laziness Disease Dougie's got 10 pills in each of two bottles. Of course, he then spills all the pills. There's no way to distinguish one pill from another. How can he take the recommended dosage and save his life?
Read Question       Read Answer

11-22	PUZZLER: Busting the Midnight Siphonist The idea wasn't to catch the thief with a secret alarm or hidden cameras. They would catch the thief just by allowing him to siphon the gas and use in his own car. What was it about Maryann's car that made it easy to figure out who the gas thief was?
Read Question       Read Answer

11-15	PUZZLER: The Kitchen Carpentry Cure What did Jerry's friend find in the kitchen that allowed him to lower the slate into its very tight-fitting hole in front of the hearth, without risk of breaking it?
Read Question       Read Answer

11-08	PUZZLER: Bobo's "Don't Look Back" Tour Bobo was told that he had to visit all 48 contiguous states. He could visit each state in whatever order he chose, but he could visit it only once. The company wanted him to start in Delaware, at their headquarters. Where did he finish?
Read Question       Read Answer

11-01	PUZZLER: How Does Pork Chop Boy Drive To Work? Some years ago Matt dislocated his right shoulder. He couldn't move the shifter on his automatic transmission. He couldn't shift his own automatic transmission car, yet he had no problem driving Tommy's car to work. Which one of Tommy's cars did he drive?
Read Question       Read Answer

11-01	PUZZLER: How Does Pork Chop Boy Drive To Work? Some years ago Matt dislocated his right shoulder. He couldn't move the shifter on his automatic transmission. He couldn't shift his own automatic transmission car, yet he had no problem driving Tommy's car to work. Which one of Tommy's cars did he drive?
Read Question       Read Answer

10-26	PUZZLER: The case of the missing getaway car Two police officers trained their flashlights on the car, looking for evidence that it had been driven the day before. One of the officers said, "This car's clean. It wasn't involved in a robbery." What did he see?
Read Question       Read Answer

10-18	PUZZLER: Ray says, "Equate this!" I'm going to give you four numbers: 2,3,4, and 5. And they're not Roman numerals, they're regular old Arabic numerals. You also get a plus sign and an equal sign. Make an equation.
Read Question       Read Answer

10-12	PUZZLER: The Mystery Mileage VW When I bought my 1973 Beetle, I was told the 80,000 on the odometer was legit. I wasn't so sure. A year later, I got around to buying new tires. The vendor told me something that made think that I had been told the truth. What did he say?
Read Question       Read Answer

10-04	PUZZLER: One Seat Left. Is It Yours? You're one of a hundred people standing in line to get onto an airplane that has 100 seats. The first person to walk onto the plane drops his boarding pass and takes a seat at random. What are the chances that you get to sit in your assigned seat?
Read Question       Read Answer

09-27	PUZZLER: The Case of the Whistling Oldsmobile Delta 88 The day I finished my painting job, I loaded up my equipment and headed for home. The howling noise returned. At home, when I finished unloading my equipment, I realized what the problem was. Five minutes later, I had the problem solved. What was it?
Read Question       Read Answer

09-20	PUZZLER: Curious Escalator Math In London, the subway stations have three escalators: One down, and two up. Why?
Read Question       Read Answer

09-13	PUZZLER: Ray's Mysterious Gas Station Chat When I was done filling my gas tank, I said something like, "Gee, it's really getting harder and harder to do these days, isn't it"?
Read Question       Read Answer

09-04	PUZZLER: The Power of One, Measly Letter What is one word found in the Oxford English Dictionary that ends in "s" and is both plural and masculine?
Read Question       Read Answer

08-30	PUZZLER: An Especially Challenging Glass of Water You have a four-ounce glass, a nine-ounce glass, and endless supply of water. You can fill or dump either glass. What's the fewest number of steps in which you can measure six ounces?
Read Question       Read Answer

08-23	PUZZLER: Saving the RAF's bullet-ridden planes What armor plating, if any, did the nameless mathematician recommend putting on the Royal Air Force's returning planes -- and why?
Read Question       Read Answer

08-16	PUZZLER: A tale of two Malaysians... and a kid. There are two Malaysians standing on the street corner. They're having a conversation. One of them is the father of the other's son. How could this be?
Read Question       Read Answer

08-09	PUZZLER: Heart Attack Help An old guy is driving home. It's late at night. Suddenly, he feels himself having a heart attack. He calls 911. What does the dispatcher ask him to do?
Read Question       Read Answer

07-31	PUZZLER: The minister, the doctor, and the plumber How did the night watchman know that it was the minister that pulled the trigger?
Read Question       Read Answer

07-26	PUZZLER: Manny the Miracle Worker Why should it matter to Manny, that the old lady's mother-in-law lives on a dirt road?
Read Question       Read Answer

07-19	PUZZLER: Evil King Raymond and the White Knight The gold box says, "Rowena's picture is in this box." The silver box says, "The picture ain't in this box." The lead box says, "The picture ain't in the gold box." Only one statement is true. Where's the picture?
Read Question       Read Answer

07-12	PUZZLER: Crusty goes to Coleslawvania Mrs. Crusty sees a woman walking toward them whom she recognizes from the plane. She says, "Oh, thank God! We'll be able to get to our hotel tonight!"
Read Question       Read Answer

07-05	PUZZLER: An Amber-Colored Conundrum Where they have put new traffic lights in, they've replaced the green light and they've replaced the red light, but they haven't replaced the yellow lights. Why do we see new green lights and new red lights, but no new yellow lights?
Read Question       Read Answer

06-14	PUZZLER: A Frigid Flight to Safety With only a Centigrade thermometer, how did Skip know that it wasn't colder than minus forty Fahrenheit, and they could safely start the airplane's engine?
Read Question       Read Answer

06-07	PUZZLER: Attack of the Bucolic Plague One-tenth of one percent of the population has the bucolic plague. The test is 99 percent accurate. You get your results: positive. What is the probability that you actually have the Bucolic Plague?
Read Question       Read Answer

05-31	PUZZLER: Ray's Wife Proves He's All Wet Is Ray's wife right? And could a new water filter suddenly be refrigerating the water?
Read Question       Read Answer

05-24	PUZZLER: Electrical Engineers Learn The Hard Way When removing a car's battery, one is supposed to disconnect the negative terminal first. Why is that?
Read Question       Read Answer

05-17	PUZZLER: A Run That's "No Sweat" Same weather, same speed, same grade, same everything. Yet, when they're done, Mike and Doug were not sweating at all. Why was that?
Read Question       Read Answer

05-10	PUZZLER: In Search of the Bogus Coins What's the fewest number of weighings you need to make to determine which of the seven stacks of coins, if any, are counterfeit?
Read Question       Read Answer

05-03	PUZZLER: Tim and Jethro's Pump-Side Wager What did Jethro know that enabled him to tell when a driver had pulled up to the pump with the fuel door facing the wrong way?
Read Question       Read Answer

04-26	PUZZLER: Walking and Riding to Town—Is It Faster? Will John and Fred get to town any faster if they leap-frog, walking, and riding with their one bicycle?
Read Question       Read Answer

04-19	PUZZLER: New Barber Math The barber says, "You match whatever is in the cash register, and then take out 20 bucks." He says the same thing to the second and third customers. The fourth customer opens the register, and there's no money. How much money was in there to start?
Read Question       Read Answer

04-12	PUZZLER: Lefty Wins the Game—Without a Pitch How can Lefty win his 20th game, collect his bonus—and not throw a single pitch?
Read Question       Read Answer

04-05	PUZZLER: Playing Cards With Ray The question is, is there a strategy you could use that would guarantee you would win?
Read Question       Read Answer

03-22	PUZZLER: The Morris Minor That Could He opens the hood and removes the spark plugs. They're soaked with gasoline. He realizes why they're soaked, because when he takes the distributor cap off, it's full of water. Yet, in less than 10 minutes, he begins a successful drive. How did he do it?
Read Question       Read Answer

03-15	PUZZLER: An Ingenious Ride Home We didn't have a new alternator to put in. But, they were able to devise a plan! And, we made it back to Michigan with no difficulty-- and virtually no delay.What did we do?
Read Question       Read Answer

3-8	PUZZLER: A Balancing Act What weight, also a solid cube one foot on a side, does he have to put all the way at the other end, for the seesaw to balance?
Read Question      Read Answer

3-1	PUZZLER: Confounding Compounding Can you think of a situation where the components of a compound subject are connected by "and," yet the form of the verb must be singular, and not plural?
Read Question      Read Answer

2-23	PUZZLER: Tommy and his SRC's ponder a rail oddity How can train engineers miss their targets with such regularity, especially considering how excruciatingly slowly the trains are moving?
Read Question      Read Answer

2-16	PUZZLER: Ray, In Search of Some Hot Water If there is no water heater on this floor, where is it?
Read Question      Read Answer

2-9	PUZZLER: English Cuisine - And a Murder to Boot How did he know it was his countryman who attacked the servant?
Read Question      Read Answer

2-2	PUZZLER: Magical Mystery Windshield Fluid? What in the world are you doing? You added a gallon of washer fluid? How can that possibly get the car started?
Read Question      Read Answer

1-26	PUZZLER: The Curious Math of Shaking Hands How do you know there were two people present who shook the exact same number of hands?
Read Question      Read Answer

1-19	PUZZLER: A crop of the oddest kind When I looked to my right, I saw fields of yellow. When I looked to my left, I saw fields of green. And yet, just a single crop was being grown. How could that be?
Read Question      Read Answer

1-12	PUZZLER: A VW, A Flywheel and One Big Conundrum What did she come outside with, and how did I torque the old VW Beetle's flywheel to exactly 200-foot pounds?
Read Question      Read Answer

1-5	PUZZLER: A Most Curious Mathematical Symbol What common mathematical symbol, when placed between the numbers 4 and 5, will result in a number that is greater than 4 but less than 6?
Read Question      Read Answer