RAY: Hi! We're back. You're listening to Car Talk with us, Click and Clack, the Tappet Brothers, here to talk about cars, car repair and, uh, the answer to last week's Puzzler.
TOM: Mmm.
RAY: You ready?
TOM: I'm ready. I still don't remember it.
RAY: We have a friend, who shall remain nameless, who works at a government facility and does very important work.
TOM: That's almost a given. Government facility.
RAY: It's got to be important work, right?
TOM: Yeah.
RAY: Anyway, one day, he's at his desk working away, reading some very technical manual, when he's awakened—I mean startled—by the sound of his stomach growling. He turns in his seat and looks at the electric clock on the wall behind him. This is one of those clocks that you see in office buildings everywhere. You know, it plugs into the wall.
TOM: Mmm-hmm.
RAY: You got it?
TOM: Yeah.
RAY: It's one of those big analog brown things.
TOM: Yeah.
RAY: He looks at the clock, and as he turns back to his work, he says, "Gee, it's obviously too early to eat lunch. I must have forgotten to eat breakfast." He returns to work. A short time later, he's again startled by the growling of his stomach. He turns to look at the clock again. This time, he notices that it's later than it was the first time that he looked. Duh! But it's still too early for lunch. The second hand is sweeping, the hour hand has moved, and the minute hand is in a different position than it was before. And, in fact, the hands of the clock are exactly 180 degrees apart, like they would be if it were 6:00.
TOM: Mmm-hmm.
RAY: As he turns back to his desk, again thinking about how interminably long this morning seems, his stomach growls for the third time, and he says, "The clock is broken." How did he know the clock was broken?
TOM: Mmm.
RAY: Well, I mean, I purposely made the narrative rather lengthy so as to obfuscate...
TOM: Yeah, of course. We knew that.
RAY: And confuse.
TOM: Yeah.
RAY: And did I do that?
TOM: You succeeded. I don't know the answer.
RAY: Well, you do know the answer.
TOM: I do?
RAY: You know, let's say he looked at the clock and he saw that the hands were 180 degrees apart, but the clock read 11:25.
TOM: Yeah.
RAY: But that's impossible.
TOM: It's impossible for it to be 11:25?
RAY: It's impossible for it to be 11:25 and the hands be 180 degrees apart.
TOM: Oh, of coarse!
RAY: Because when it's 11:25, in fact, the hour hand's...
TOM: It'd be beyond 11.
RAY: It should be 5/12 of the way to 12. When it's 11:30, shouldn't it be halfway between 11 and 12?
TOM: Yeah, but...
RAY: Right? But, if it's exactly on 11, and the minute hand is exactly on the fiveÉ
TOM: But you didn't say that.
RAY: I didn't. I just said that the hands were 180 degrees apart, and that's what he noticed.
TOM: And they could be 180 degrees...
RAY: Not at 11:25, they couldn't.
TOM: Who said anything about 11:25?
RAY: Well, that's what he noticed.
TOM: How about 11:27?
RAY: It wasn't 11:27.
TOM: But the hands would have been 180 degrees apart.
RAY: But that's how he knew the clock was broken.
TOM: Oh, jeez.
RAY: He knew the clock was broken because it read a time that was impossible.
TOM: Oh, man. This is really sucky.
RAY: No, it isn't. It's wonderful!
TOM: Oh, man! You are going to get so much hate mail! I'll be on your side; I'm your brother.
RAY: Oh, I doubt it!
TOM: And I'll defend you to the death.
RAY: I doubt it!
TOM: But I have to say that this stinks to high heaven!
RAY: I doubt you.
TOM: To high heaven, I tell you! This stinks a lot!
RAY: They're like rats leaving a sinking ship! Berman's run out!
TOM: You...I mean, sure! Sure!
RAY: I could have merely said, "The clock reads 9:15, and the two hands are opposite each other—180. Is that a possibility? And you would have said, "No, that's impossible."
TOM: No, it's not.
RAY: So, I had to make...I had to clever it up, so to speak.
TOM: Wow!
RAY: Come on!
TOM: Fine. All right. Fine. I'll give it to you.
RAY: It's wonderful to have such a ringing endorsement.
[ Car Talk Puzzler ]
