What Happened

Puzzler time.

Here it is. This one is short, so pay attention.

Many years ago, I was driving my Ford Aerostar down the road in Arlington, Texas, in June when all of a sudden I heard a muffled bang that was immediately followed by the motor dying.

I pulled off to the side of the road and popped the hood and looked to see what had happened.

Once I saw what had happened, I thought this was going to cost a lot to have fixed.

I closed the hood, got back in the van, started the engine, and drove off.

So it was a muffled bang from under the hood. I looked at it and said it would cost a lot to fix it. Then started the engine up and drove away.

The puzzler quesiton is, what happened?

Good luck.

Answer the Puzzler »

Remember last week's puzzler?

The One Winner

Here it is.

A local mechanic named Vinny, being renowned for his prowess in arm wrestling, asked to set up a tournament at the local watering hole, where he goes every night.

It's going to be a single elimination tournament. Meaning once you lose, you're out, no ties allowed. This is arm wrestling. You can't have a tie in arm wrestling.

To his horror, 247 people have signed up for this tournament, and the barkeeper wants to know how many bouts have to be fought.

Figuring the bout takes like five minutes, he wants to know what time he should start the event, so that they can finish before closing time.

So Vinny is all upset. He has to figure this out now. He has to set up a branching tree, but he can't count so well...

Fortunately, there's a little guy sitting next to Vinny at the bar, and the guy says, "I know the answer. There is a simple reasoning process which will allow you to instantly know how many bouts have to be fought."

And the puzzler question is, if there are 247 people that signed up, how many bouts will there have to be in order to determine one winner?