Can you solve this week's puzzler?

View in browser » Saving Water Puzzler time.  Here we go. Sometime in the late 1930's, German aeronautical engineers were working on a device. Perhaps engineers from other countries were doing the same thing.  So this device did the following. It took water vapor, which is one of the products of a gasoline engine combustion, and it would condense it into water and save it.  You might say, well, not such a big deal. However, it would save the water in an interesting way. It would save it in such a way that the amount of water saved would be exactly the equivalent in weight as the amount of fuel that the engine burned.  So as the engine burned a pound of fuel or kilogram of fuel, this device would save a pound of water and discard the rest. This way, the plane would always weigh the same amount.  And the puzzler is, why would you want to do this?  Good luck. Answer the Puzzler » Remember last week's puzzler? Classic Symptoms Puzzler time.  This one is not very interesting, but it is automotive! So we are doing it. Here we go.  A fellow comes into the shop a few years ago, I don't know, maybe about 20 years ago, and he complains that his Volvo, an older Volvo, is misbehaving. It seems to lose power. It sputters. It has difficulty climbing hills. And it's especially bad if the gas tank is less than half full. And we said, "Piece of cake!" It must be a classic problem of the in-tank fuel pump going bad. Years ago, Volvos had a pump in the tank, which is a feeder pump, which pushes the fuel to the main fuel pump, which is located outside the tank, underneath the car. So when the in-tank pump fails, the car will still continue to run, because the main pump will actually pull fuel out of the tank, rather than have it pushed and assisted by this feeder pump or in-tank pump. But it won't work great, and the car will suffer from poor performance because of the fact that it hasn't got sufficient fuel pressure. These are classic symptoms. So the guy says, "You guys are so sure of this diagnosis, go ahead and replace the pump." So we do the job.  And then, week or two later, he returns and says, "Geez, the car runs great, but my mileage is down. You all must have done something." I said, "How could we have done anything to affect the mileage?" He says, "It's off at least 10%." He comes back persistently a few weeks later and says, "It's down even more, maybe 15% and getting worse, you did something wrong!" We reassure him that we did nothing wrong. He says, "I know it has something to do with that pump you put in the tank." So as a courtesy, we check out his car again. We can't find anything wrong.  Well, he returns for the third time, and after looking at all the data, we come to realize that he's right, his mileage is going down.  And even though we did nothing wrong putting in the new pump, it somehow made his mileage drop. He was absolutely right. Even though the work we did was correct, putting the new pump in made his mileage drop precipitously.  The repair was done correctly. The pump was installed perfectly correctly, and yet, he was correct that by putting in the pump we reduced his gas mileage. How could this be? Find out here » Congratulations to this week's puzzler winner: George Jakubson Danby, NY Congratulations! This correct answer was chosen at random by our Web Lackeys. Cartalk.com Community This Week's Show Podcast Add to address book Unsubscribe from list Email preferences Shameless Commerce Care of WBUR, 890 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, MA 02215 Contents © 2025, Dewey, Cheatham, and Howe.

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Can you solve this week's puzzler?

View in browser » Classic Symptoms Puzzler time.  This one is not very interesting, but it is automotive! So we are doing it. Here we go.  A fellow comes into the shop a few years ago, I don't know, maybe about 20 years ago, and he complains that his Volvo, an older Volvo, is misbehaving. It seems to lose power. It sputters. It has difficulty climbing hills. And it's especially bad if the gas tank is less than half full. And we said, "Piece of cake!" It must be a classic problem of the in-tank fuel pump going bad. Years ago, Volvos had a pump in the tank, which is a feeder pump, which pushes the fuel to the main fuel pump, which is located outside the tank, underneath the car. So when the in-tank pump fails, the car will still continue to run, because the main pump will actually pull fuel out of the tank, rather than have it pushed and assisted by this feeder pump or in-tank pump. But it won't work great, and the car will suffer from poor performance because of the fact that it hasn't got sufficient fuel pressure. These are classic symptoms. So the guy says, "You guys are so sure of this diagnosis, go ahead and replace the pump." So we do the job.  And then, week or two later, he returns and says, "Geez, the car runs great, but my mileage is down. You all must have done something." I said, "How could we have done anything to affect the mileage?" He says, "It's off at least 10%." He comes back persistently a few weeks later and says, "It's down even more, maybe 15% and getting worse, you did something wrong!" We reassure him that we did nothing wrong. He says, "I know it has something to do with that pump you put in the tank." So as a courtesy, we check out his car again. We can't find anything wrong.  Well, he returns for the third time, and after looking at all the data, we come to realize that he's right, his mileage is going down.  And even though we did nothing wrong putting in the new pump, it somehow made his mileage drop. He was absolutely right. Even though the work we did was correct, putting the new pump in made his mileage drop precipitously.  The repair was done correctly. The pump was installed perfectly correctly, and yet, he was correct that by putting in the pump we reduced his gas mileage. How could this be? Good luck. Answer the Puzzler » Remember last week's puzzler? Half of Five Puzzler time! This one is very short. Because the last one was very long.  Here we go.  Years ago my neighbor Frank says to me, "I have five children." And I said, "Yes, I know that." And then he says, "Half of them are boys." And I said, "Wait, what?" And the puzzler is, can you explain what he means by this? Find out here » Congratulations to this week's puzzler winner:  fastallan13 Congratulations! This correct answer was chosen at random by our Web Lackeys. Cartalk.com Community This Week's Show Podcast Add to address book Unsubscribe from list Email preferences Shameless Commerce Care of WBUR, 890 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, MA 02215 Contents © 2025, Dewey, Cheatham, and Howe.

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