Coring the Sphere

It's time for the new puzzler. I already presented this puzzle as a challenge to our staff here at Car Talk Plaza. And I'm going to use it because Doug Berman is still scratching his nose, trying to try to figure it out.

I think the question has to be very carefully worded.

You have a sphere, a solid sphere. And I don't want to tell you how big the sphere is because you have to figure that out. So you are going to drill through this to the center of this sphere with a tool, a drill. Or something like a drill, except the drill, is like a coring thing that you would core an apple with. A corer, if you will!

You are going to take this corer, and make a hole through the center of a sphere.

And the core is exactly six inches long. Or the corer is in fact a cylinder whose height is 6 inches.

So you're gonna push this cylinder through the sphere. Imagine if you were coring, let's say orange. So you're gonna push this thing through until the piece falls out the other end. Both the corer and the piece fall out.

Now the question is, how much of the material of the original sphere is left behind?

Now you'll notice I didn't fool around with any semantics or jargon. And I didn't obfuscate the puzzler, because I was remonstrated by everyone here, including especially Doug was said, this puzzler was lousy, and that I should make it as clear, succinct, concise, uncomplicated, as possible.

And the question is, how much of the sphere remains after you take out the 6" core?

Answer the Puzzler »

Remember last week's puzzler?

Not Being Facetious!

I can see by that puzzled look on your faces that you know what time it is. Time for the new puzzler!

I was reading the other day and I came across an interesting word. Now, this is no joke, I'm not being facetious. The word is "facetious".

So there is something interesting about that word. And I can't tell you what it is. But if you write it down, you will notice that there is something interesting about it.

To the best of my knowledge, there is only one other word in the English language that has the same properties.

So this is again, a two-part puzzler column. Part 1: What is it that's peculiar, unique, or interesting about the word facetious? And Part B: What other English word has the same peculiarity?