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The Young Mathematician

RAY: Several hundred years ago, somewhere in Europe, in a classroom, a teacher is assigning the students some busy work as a kind of punishment because the class has been misbehaving.

The teacher says "Okay, wise guys, I want you to add up all the numbers between one and 100. I.e. one plus two, plus three, six. Four, plus five, plus six, plus seven."

As you can see, it begins to get tough. And don't forget, they were little kids, they could barely even make the numbers! After about a minute or so, one of the kids raises his hand and says, I have the answer.

And the teacher says, "The heck you do!"

But the student says, "The answer is 5050." And indeed that was the answer. The question is, how did he do it so quickly?

And part two for extra credit is, who was this kid? (He was a famous mathematician.) What's his name?

Answer the Puzzler »

Remember last week's puzzler?

The Anxious Do-it-yourselfer

RAY: This is kind of an interesting puzzle and I'm sure there are some people that will get it immediately and there are others that won't ever get it. This is often the case. I tried this on my brother and he scratched his head for 20 minutes and left a big hole in his forehead.

A while back, I got a call from an anxious do-it-yourselfer. He was doing a clutch on his Honda. I think it was like a 1981 Honda Accord. Or an 82 or maybe even an 83.

Anyway, he and his mother-in-law were out in the driveway and they had the thing jacked up and were attempting to remove the transaxle.

This is what front-wheel drive cars have. They have the transmission and the axle assembly and the final drive assembly in one big box called the transaxle. I order to replace the clutch, you take that whole thing out and then you put your new clutch in, you put that whole thing back in, you shove the axles back in, and you put the tires back on and a month and a half later you drive away.

He called me up and he said, “I’ve got a problem.” He said, “I'm attempting to take off the transaxle and I've got power steering fluid coming out of the transmission.” Whoo. He said what is power steering fluid? He said, “Is that the lubricant that's in the transmission?” And I said, “No! what's in the transmission is 10W40 motor oil. That's what the lubricant is for the gears in the transmission.” He said well why is the power steering fluid going into the transmission? I pull off these hoses and power steering fluid comes out of them.”

And I said, “HmmmmMmmmmHmmmmmMmmmHmmmmmmm.” Anyway, just fill in the blanks and you'll have the answer. So, what did I say to this anxious do-it-yourselfer?