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This Week's Puzzler

The Checkerboard


Time for the new puzzler for today. 

Here we go.

Imagine you have a checkerboard. A big square checkerboard. Standard type. 

So, it is 8 squares by 8 squares and they alternate in color from black to red and black to red, and so on.  And 8 times 8 is 64, so there are 64 squares total. 

So now, imagine that you have a bunch of dominoes. Say, 32 dominoes. Each Domino was big enough to cover two squares on the checkerboard. One black square and one red square.

So it's easy to figure out that with the checkerboard having 64 squares, half that number, or 32, would be enough to cover every single square on the checkerboard.

So now, I'm gonna add a little wrinkle to this. Make it not so easy. Let's say you took a saw and you removed the right-hand corner square of the checkerboard. You just cut it off. And you did the same with the one in the left-hand corner. You just cut it right out. 

So now, you have a checkerboard with 62 squares, because you just cut out two of them. The two are diagonally across from either other on the board. One black square and one red square.

Here is the puzzler. 

Explain in three sentences or less, how you would arrange the dominoes now to cover all the squares, knowing that each domino must cover one red square and one black square. You can use as many as you need, but they can't overlap each other. 

Good luck.

Answer the Puzzler »
Remember last week's puzzler?

Flickering Oil Light


This one was inspired by a fan who wrote in with a problem in her minivan. And it just sounded like it would make a great puzzler, so here we go. 

She wrote to us, years ago, and said this. 

"I recently had a problem with my Chevrolet van. Anytime I stopped the van at a stop light if it was warmed up, the oil light would flicker on and off. 

So I checked the oil and discovered I had plenty of oil in there. I'm becoming concerned about this happening, that I might have low oil pressure.

Oh, and by the way, I don't know if this has any bearing on the situation, but I have very little heat as well."

Okay to recap, her oil light flickers on when she comes to a traffic light, and she thinks she has low oil pressure. So, why is her oil light coming on, and what does the heat have to do with it?

Find out here »
Congratulations to this week's
puzzler winner:

 gndyosh

Congratulations! This correct answer was chosen at random by our Web Lackeys.

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