Scientific Headlight Experiments

Ready for the new puzzler.

A fellow is driving home from work in the late afternoon. And he notices that his car is not running particularly well. We can all empathize right away.

As he continues his drive, he notices it's getting darker and decides it's time to put on his headlights. When he turns on the headlights, he notices the car is running even worse. He begins to become concerned because it's running pretty badly and realizes he might not make it home in time for dinner, which is always a concern of mine!

So now, this guy decides to experiment a bit, being a scientific fellow. He turns the headlights off and the car runs much better.

Turning the headlights off improves how the car is running slightly. It runs noticeably better with the headlights off. And if he turns the headlights back on, it reverts to running poorly.

So, that's the puzzler. What's going on here?

Answer the Puzzler »

Remember last week's puzzler?

Chocolate Chip Cookies and Timing Belts

We have a new puzzler this week. Here it is.

A customer called me the other day with this question.

He said he had an interesting thing that happened to him over the weekend. He was driving his car. Out on a pleasure drive with the wife and the 2.3 kids. So here he is on this excursion and the car started running very badly. Real bad. Low power and everything. He didn't know what was wrong. But there were no repair shops open on Sunday. So he pulls into one of those little gas stations. All the mechanics are out on their boats, of course.

This was one of those gas stations where they only sell chocolate chip cookies, milk, and gasoline and you have to pay for everything before you get the gas. Anyway, the attendant comes out and he says, "Gee, I don't know much about cars, but I happen to own one of these here. I'll look at it if you'd like me to. I don't know if I can fix it with milk and cookies, but I'll do my best!"

He said the guy seemed actually quite knowledgeable. And after careful study of 40 or 50 seconds, he said, "You have a broken timing belt."

And the customer said, "My car couldn't possibly run without a timing belt. I had that happen on my last four cars so you can't drive if you have a broken timing belt."

He said to me, "Do you believe this guy?"

And I said, "Yes, I do."

What's going on here? Is it the timing belt? And what kind of car was it?

That is our puzzler for the day.