Number Two Pencil

Time for the new puzzler. Well, it is really old, actually. But still a good one!

Here it is.

Reynold B. Johnson is an American inventor known for two big things.

The computer disk drive, and the automatic test scoring machine that was able to sense pencil marks, and were used for SAT scoring and stuff like that.

Anyway, when he was a kid, he liked to use his #2 pencil to humiliate his sister's boyfriends. Whenever they would park the Model T Fords in front of the house, they found they could not restart the engine. This was because Reynold the wiz kid had done something to the car with a pencil that he could not have done with a pen.

So he did something to the cars with his pencil that could easily be fixed.

What was it?

Good luck.

Answer the Puzzler »

Remember last week's puzzler?

Prime 11

Many years ago, we had an uncle named Enzo. We only vaguely remember him. We were very young. Anyway, he went back to Italy. But before he went, he had 11 antique cars here. Each of them had a value of about 500 bucks. This was a while ago.

So, when our Uncle Enzo died, he left a very interesting will. His will said that his 11 cars be divided among his three sons. But he wanted the oldest son to get more of his estate, due to his age.

Half of the cars would go to the eldest son. One fourth of the cars to the middle son. And one sixth of the cars for the youngest son.

So after the reading of the will, everyone was puzzled. Because there are 11 cars, and 11 is a prime number. It cannot be divided in a half, or a fourth or a sixth.

So just as everyone is scratching their heads, not knowing what to do, our Uncle Vinny shows up in his 1962 Chevy BelAir. And he says, "Don't worry. I know what to do. I can help with my car."

And the puzzler is, how do they do it?