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What's the Battery Breakthrough?

RAY: Today's puzzler comes from real life. One of my neighbors was out walking his dog and he stopped by my house and we got to talking. Now his dog was a pretty big dog, and this dog kept looking at my left leg and drooling. I don't know why. But at any rate, that doesn't have anything to do with this puzzler.

This neighbor and I started talking about car batteries, and he said, "Gee, you know, years ago, I remember that people would go out to start their cars on cold winter mornings. And on any given cold winter morning, about 20% of the cars wouldn't start, you turn the key and the car would go RuhRruuhRuuhRuuuuh."

And he wanted to know why batteries are so good now. He said, "This doesn't seem to happen anymore, so what is the new battery technology over the past 20 years?

He wanted to know what it is that makes newer cars start more reliably than they did 25 years ago.

It's so easy to start your car now, for the most part. So the question is what's going on here? What new technology? What breakthrough has taken place?

Answer the Puzzler »

Remember last week's puzzler?

The Clutch Cable Conundrum

RAY: A guy came into the shop with his Volvo on the back of a tow truck. He says the clutch cable has broken five times in the last five months. I asked what happened, and he said, "I had a new clutch put in six months ago. When they put the new clutch in, they advised me to put a new cable in. I said go ahead. A month later they closed up shop and headed for some unknown Pacific Island when the clutch cable breaks."

The guy puts a new clutch cable in, thinking the one that the shop put in was defective. A month later that cable breaks. Another month goes by and that cable breaks. By this time, he says, "I was at my wit's end. I figured the clutch had to be defective, so I brought it to another shop and, what? They install a brand-new clutch. And, of course, what? A new clutch cable."

A month later the cable breaks again. I asked him under what circumstances it breaks.

He says, "I start the car, I go to drive it away, I step on the clutch or I go to shift it into gear. I get to the corner, for example, and I shift into neutral. I wait for the light to turn green. I step on the clutch and the cable breaks."

I said, "Oh, my God." I asked him if the car starts now.

He said, "I don't even bother to start it. Since the cable was broken, what was the sense?"

I say to him, "I bet it won't start." He said, "Why shouldn't it start? It started yesterday; it has nothing to do with the clutch."

Anyway, we go out to the car and turn the key: dead. He asks, "What does that have to do with my clutch cable breaking?"

I say.. everything.

What's wrong with the Volvo?