The Broken Stone

Time for this week's puzzler.

Here it is.

I had a few to choose from today. This one wins. This is a non automotive puzzler. Here we go.

Years ago, somewhere far, far away.

A farmer had a 40 pound stone, which he could use to weigh 40 pounds of feed or hay.

He would sell feed in 40 pound bundles and hay in 40 pound bales. He had a balance scale. He put the stone on one side, and he piled the other side with feed or hay. When it balanced, he knew he had enough to sell.

Then one day, a neighbor borrows the stone.

But he had to apologize when he returned it, because he broke it into four pieces. And he felt really bad about it.

As it turns out, the farmer who owned the stone later told the neighbor that he actually had done him a favor.

The pieces of the broken stone could now be used to weigh any item, assuming those items were in one pound increments, from one pound to 40 pounds, so the farmer thought this was a great improvement.

So the puzzler is, what were the weights of the 4 individual stones after the large stone was broken?

Okay, so if you want to weigh 1 pound, 6 pounds, 11 pounds, 22 pounds, 39 pounds... How would you use the 4 stones, the thing you're weighing, and the balance scale?

And here's the hint, how would you weigh 2 pounds?

Good luck!

Answer the Puzzler »

Remember last week's puzzler?

The Pharmacist

Puzzler time.

This one is an old one. But a good one. Here we go.

Years and years ago, my father-in-law, who lived in Minnesota, had trouble with his late-model Cadillac Deville; his battery kept dying.

Every couple of days, he would get it jump-started, and it would run fine for a few days, but then it would die again.

So he took it to the dealership. They checked it out. They couldn't find anything wrong.

One morning after there had been several inches of snow, he went out, and sure enough, the battery was dead. So he jump-started the car.

He then went into town to get a cup of coffee at the local drug store.

Now, being that he lives in such a small town, he went and parked right in front of the drugstore, and while he was drinking his coffee, he complained to the pharmacist about how his car was driving him nuts.

The pharmacist asked, "Is that your car right out there?"

And he said, "Why, yes, that is my car."

And the pharmacist said, "I know why your battery is dying."

And the puzzler simply is, what does the pharmacist know? Why is the battery dying?