The Chemistry Test

RAY: I shamelessly stole this from Joseph Rayle from Durham, North Carolina.

Two undergraduate chemistry students at a major university had a highly successful semester in an introductory chemistry class. So their confidence is high, so high in fact that they decide to blow off their reading period, and they go to a fraternity party in a town quite a distance away and they have a pretty good time. So good in fact that they don't make it back in time for their final exam.

In a panic, however, they devise a plan. They agreed to tell the professor that they had a flat tire and this prevented their returning in time to take the exam. They pleaded with him, "Let us take the exam, please, this could ruin us, we promise nothing like this will ever happen again." The professor agrees and tells them to return the next morning. The two return the following morning, and the professor gives them their exam but decides he isn't going to hang around. He has them leave their books and backpacks in the office and sends them to different rooms to take their exams. The test consists of one five-point question - some molarity problem - and each, smiling confidently, answers the question. Then they turn the page, and the next question is a ninety-five-point question.

And our question is: What is the question?

Answer the Puzzler »

Remember last week's puzzler?

The Loose Caboose: What is it that causes this train to strain?

RAY: Here's a puzzler of yesteryear.

Imagine, if you will, a long freight train. As the kind, you see out West with a couple of hundred cars getting ready to leave the train yard. The engineer opens the throttle and the train starts to pull away from the yard. Then they realize that the caboose has a problem. The brake is frozen on one of the wheels of the caboose, and the wheel is being dragged so there are sparks and smoke.

Someone standing there says, "Stop the train." So, they manage to signal to the engineer, to stop the train. Well, they can't fix it, so they just cut the caboose loose. They remove it and they give him the go ahead. They wave him. You know. Go ahead. He gives it the throttle. The train doesn't move.

He gives it more throttle, it doesn't move. He gives it more and what's happening in the train isn't moving, but his wheels are spinning. There's nothing wrong with any of the remaining cars and there's nothing wrong with the engine, but there is something wrong with the engineer.

The question is what's wrong with this picture?