Paradise, Nirvana, Valhalla, and Hell

Now I usually do the stimulating, intelligent puzzlers that you hear on this show and I had one all prepared. But I somehow or another (I don't know how this happened) allowed my brother to choose the one for this week.

He claimed he was the brains of this outfit, and insisted he gets the opportunity to choose the puzzle. So he chose one sent in by a listener named Kirk Veneer (you may have heard of his brother Mahogony.)

Here's what the letter says:

A few weeks ago, I was listening to your show and you were having a lively discussion on the virtues of the Jaguar XJ SV12. I listened as you debated whether or not the Jaguar XJSV12. Convertible (dark blue) could take you to Nirvana. Remember that? Well, I wanted to shed some light on this topic. Not only can the Jaguar XJS take you to Nirvana, but it can also take you to Valhalla, Paradise, and even to Hell, providing you are driving in what state?

Well, I know I usually drive in a state of confusion. So the question is: if you can drive in the same state to Paradise, Nirvana, Valhalla, and even Hell, what state are you in? I'll even give you a hint, it's one of the 48 contiguous states.

Answer the Puzzler »

Remember last week's puzzler?

Pharmacy Puzzler (New and Improved)

It's time for this week's puzzler. Now, do you remember the name of the druggist in last week's puzzles George Bailey?

Well, that was just the setup for this puzzle. We thought we'd try another pharmacist puzzle. So it's exactly the same puzzle, with a little twist.

I'll just state this as if there were no puzzle last week. So here it is. You have a drugstore in which you have all these bottles of pills, our shipment of pills has arrived. There are a couple of 100 pills. 300 pills. 400 pills in each but big bottles.

And in last week's puzzle was, you had one bottle of pills where the pills were faulty. They were overweight. Okay, so you had to figure out, with one weighing on your fancy analytical scale, you had to figure out a clever way to weigh the pills and determine at a glance which bottle was the one with the defective and overweight pill.

And you knew that a good pill weighed five grams in a bad pill, an evil pill, weighed six grams. You were told that there was only one bottle that had faulty pills.

And the solution was to take one pill from the first bottle two pills in the second bottle with three pills with that. Okay, so if you were like six grams overweight, you knew that it was the sixth bottle. Two grams overweight, you know it was the second bottle. A very clever solution.

So now you get the telegram that says you might have, let's say you have six bottles of pills. Could be any number but let's say it's six bottles of pills. And the telegram says there could be any number of bottles that have faulty pills.

So the good bottles have pills that weigh five grams each. But either one or two or three or four or maybe all six bottles have pills in them that weigh six grams. And the entire contents of the bottle would have bought the pill, it wouldn't be just one faulty pill in the bottle, it would be an entire right bottle. And remember they would look like the regular pills.

The question is how can George Bailey or anyone do this with one weighing? Or can it be done?

Can it be done with, one weighing, to determine if any of the bottles have defective pills in them? Because it could be anyone bottle that has defective pills or it could be all six of them?, or none, or anything between. Right? So it's a two-part question. A: Can you do this with one weighing? And part 2: How?

It's time for this week's puzzler. Now, do you remember the name of the druggist in last week's puzzles George Bailey?

Well, that was just the setup for this puzzle. We thought we'd try another pharmacist puzzle. So it's exactly the same puzzle, with a little twist.

I'll just state this as if there were no puzzle last week. So here it is. You have a drugstore in which you have all these bottles of pills, our shipment of pills has arrived. There are a couple of 100 pills. 300 pills. 400 pills in each but big bottles.

And in last week's puzzle was, you had one bottle of pills where the pills were faulty. They were overweight. Okay, so you had to figure out, with one weighing on your fancy analytical scale, you had to figure out a clever way to weigh the pills and determine at a glance which bottle was the one with the defective and overweight pill.

And you knew that a good pill weighed five grams in a bad pill, an evil pill, weighed six grams. You were told that there was only one bottle that had faulty pills.

And the solution was to take one pill from the first bottle two pills in the second bottle with three pills with that. Okay, so if you were like six grams overweight, you knew that it was the sixth bottle. Two grams overweight, you know it was the second bottle. A very clever solution.

So now you get the telegram that says you might have, let's say you have six bottles of pills. Could be any number but let's say it's six bottles of pills. And the telegram says there could be any number of bottles that have faulty pills.

So the good bottles have pills that weigh five grams each. But either one or two or three or four or maybe all six bottles have pills in them that weigh six grams. And the entire contents of the bottle would have bought the pill, it wouldn't be just one faulty pill in the bottle, it would be an entire right bottle. And remember they would look like the regular pills.

The question is how can George Bailey or anyone do this with one weighing? Or can it be done?

Can it be done with, one weighing, to determine if any of the bottles have defective pills in them? Because it could be anyone's bottle that has defective pills or it could be all six of them, or none, or anything between. Right? So it's a two-part question. A: Can you do this with one weighing? And part 2: How?