Monday, February 5, 2024

The Contractor

Time for the new puzzler.

Some years ago, I had a contractor over to the house. He was doing some work on my house. It was taking a while and he had to stay late, and charge me more, of course.

So when he finally leaves, it is pretty late. He is heading back to New Hampshire, where he lives. And he is traveling with his faithful assistant. And as they were driving, they began to hear the familiar drone of a fuel pump that was failing. We all know that sound at Car Talk. The drone of an electric fuel pump failing...

And sure enough, the thing quits on him. So here he is in the middle of nowhere, with a dead fuel pump. He doesn't know what to do, because it is late, and it's dark, and he needs to get home. This was before cell phones, you know. There was a time before cell phones, if you can believe it.

So, his assistant gets out, goes to the back of their work van and begins to hunt around. A few minutes later he comes out and says, "I can get us home without any trouble."

He uses something that he finds in the back of the van to get them home.

And the puzzler is, what does he find in the back of the truck that enables him to get them home? And what kind of contractor was he?

Hint: He does not in any way pump the fuel out of the tank into the engine, nor does he managed to get the fuel pump to work.

Good luck.

Answer the Puzzler »

Remember last week's puzzler?

The Odometer

This is about my old neighbor, Frank.

Some years ago, back in the 1990s, Frank had to rent a car for some event. Some thing for work he had to do. And he knew that he had to drive it a considerable distance.

And he realized that he couldn't afford to pay for the rental fee and the mileage...

He couldn't figure out how to reach under the dash to disconnect the odometer...

So, he rented the car and figured he would just think of a way to get out of it. He had to figure out how to use the car a whole bunch, but then return it with fewer miles than he actually drove so he wouldn't be charged a lot for it. He was kind of sneaky, Frank.

The car he rented was a front-wheel drive car. And he discovered that if he drove the car in reverse, the odometer went backwards... (This was a long time ago...)

So he couldn't just drive backwards. That didn't make any sense. So he figured out how to rig it. He does the calculations. He does all the arithmetic. His plan will remove 75 miles from the odometer. So he sets up the car to run like this real slow all night in his garage, to pull that 75 miles off the odometer. He jacks the car up, and he goes under the hood and sets the throttle and puts the car in reverse. And he leaves. He goes into the house for the night.

The next morning, he comes out to the garage, and what does he see? This is a multiple choice puzzler. What does he see?

A. Zero miles have come off the odometer

B. 75 miles have come off the odometer

C. 150 miles have come off the odometer

D. 427 miles have come off the odometer

What did Frank see that next morning?