The Two Strokes

It is that time again everyone. Time for the new puzzler.

Do you remember back in the old days the old Saab 95 or whatever it was. That thing had a three cylinder engine. It was a two stroke engine. Now some of you might not know this, but back then, at this time, the two stroke kind of fell out of favor for a lot of reasons. First of all, they were a little underpowered. Four stroke engines have valves and there are four strokes of the cycle which is required to complete revolutions of the crankshaft, and you only get one power stroke out of the four, the two stroke gets you power out of every two strokes, so the thoery is you have twice as much power. It doesn't really happen that way, but that is the theory.

Anyway, two stroke engines, they're inefficient, they're smoky, noisy and they're not environmentally friendly. Because they have to mix the gasoline and the oil and it's a pain in the neck. And in many cases, engines that had been two stroke engines eventually got replaced by the cleaner burning three stroke or four stroke engines.

So in the past, Saabs, lawn mowers and mopeds were two stroke engines and they switched them to four stroke for all the reasons above.

So here is the question. I have a chainsaw that is a two stroke chainsaw. You have to mix the gas and the oil and it's no fun. And the question is, why doesn't anyone make a four stroke chainsaw that uses gasoline? Lawn mowers have all been converted to four stroke engines, so why not the chainsaws?

Answer the Puzzler »

Remember last week's puzzler?

The Full Rhino

Our new puzzler today was from a letter that was sent in. I love this one. It was so good, we decided to use it. This happened a while ago. It is long, so pay attention. Here goes.

"My husband and I lived in Lagos, Nigeria, and worked at the American Embassy. We decided to drive to Timbuktu on vacation. We were cruising across the Sahara in summer and felt well qualified for this 3000-mile round trip. We had a 1987 Something, a Nissan Something, which was outfitted with lots of special things for desert travel. Full Rhino package, I think it's called. Oil coolers, sand trap, shovel, compass, air compressor, 12-volt refrigerator, tools, spare parts, water, food, guns, extra fuel, tires... The whole works. You get it.

We made it to Timbuktu without incident. The last few hundred miles were on an open desert with no road and with no other vehicle in sight.

We spent two days in the city and then were heading home via a different route. We were about 100 miles from the nearest town when a louder than usual impact against the underside of the vehicle signaled the arrival of potential disaster. My husband stopped to investigate. He looked under the car and then he swore out loud and yelled for me to bring him a specific item. I got this item from my overnight bag. I gave it to him and in a few seconds, the problem seemed to be solved.

We drove on for about five minutes and then my husband stopped to check the repair. He looked at it again and then swore again. He asks me to get him the same item but from his overnight bag this time. I gave it to him and this time the repair was made just as quickly and lasted the remaining 1800 miles of the trip!"

The puzzle is this.

What went wrong? What happened? What was the item her husband asked for? And finally, why did it work when taken from her husband's overnight bag, but not from her own?

Good luck!