Little Things

It is time for the newest puzzler. I have a vast array of puzzlers at my disposal, and then it gets hard to decide which one to use.

This one is an actual automotive puzzler. I think it is about time for one of those. This one is somewhat challenging and very interesting, I think. This situation actually occurred with one of our customers years ago.

This happened back in the day. This fellow had a 1984 Honda Civic, so this was a long time ago... Anyway, he had a hard time keeping the car running. He would start it up and it would stall. Start and stall. Start and stall. A classic problem. We have talked about this problem a million times on the show. It is a bad sparkplug wire. So, he goes and buys a new set of sparkplug wires from the local discount store. This set says it should fit all cars. So, he gets these wires and he puts them on. And for a little while the car works fine.

Then, a few months later, the car started acting up again. Same thing. So, this fellow calls the shop and explains the situation. We tell him it is probably because he bought cheap, generic sparkplug wires. Go get some good, high quality sparkplug wires and it will be fine. So, he takes our advice. In fact, he goes to the Honda dealer and pays the full retail price for a certified set of fancy sparkplug wires right from the dealership.

So, he has his new set of high end sparkplug wires, and everything is running perfectly for three months. Three months later, the rainy season is back again, and so is the problem. Same thing. He calls us again. He asks us what is going on with his car. I tell him maybe the Honda wires were defective. He says, no way. Then he goes and gets yet another set of sparkplug wires. He puts that set in and of course, three months later, the problem is back. Again.

So, finally, instead of calling for free advice, he finally brings the car into the shop to have us look at it.

So, we take a look. Then we sell him yet another set of sparkplug wires. And we sell him something else, that costs about $2 bucks. And this 'something else' solves his problem completely.

What did we sell him with the sparkplug wires that solved his problem? Hint, it was a couple of little things, very inexpensive. What were they?

Good luck.

Answer the Puzzler »

Remember last week's puzzler?

All Fizzy, All Day

This one was about ginger ale. And this one requires a bit of storytelling. So, here it is.

When you buy a bottle of ginger ale, after a little while it loses its fizz, right? So my brother conducted an experiment. He thought that if you leave a bottle out of the refrigerator with the cover off, it would go flat, right? So, he went to the store and got two big identical bottles of ginger ale. He got home and labeled them with a marker, A and B.

Then he instructed his whole family on the rules of the experiment. He put a data sheet on the counter. Any time they got a bottle out of the refrigerator, they had to record the precise time they got the bottle out of the refrigerator, which bottle it was, when they took the cap off, when they put the cap back on, and when they put the bottle back in the refrigerator.

At the end of two days, he decided it was time to take a look at the experiment. He opened the refrigerator door and there were the two bottles of ginger ale. One of the bottles of ginger ale had no fizz at all. It was flat. Completely unfizzy. However, the other bottle was just as fizzy as the day he brought it home. All fizzy, all day.

So, he took a look at the data. Both bottles of ginger ale were half full at that point. When he looked at the datasheet, he discovered that both bottles had been out of the refrigerator exactly the same amount of time. When he added up all the times, they came out to be exactly the same. The amount of time that the caps were off the bottles came out to be exactly the same.

So, knowing that is the data from the experiment, how come one of the bottles is flat and the other bottle remained fizzy?