Brain Teasers
After Dinner Car Troubles
Situation
Situation puzzles (sometimes called lateral thinking puzzles) are ones where you need to ask lots of yes or no questions to figure out what happened in the situation. These are good puzzles for groups where one person knows the puzzle and answers the questions.Situation
This teaser is based on a weird but true story from a few years ago.
A complaint was received by the president of a major car company:
"This is the fourth time I have written you, and I don't blame you for not answering me because I must sound crazy, but it is a
fact that we have a tradition in our family of having ice cream for dessert after dinner each night. Every night after we've eaten, the family votes on which flavor of ice cream we should have and I drive down to the store to get it. I recently purchased a new Pantsmobile from your company and since then my trips to the store have created a problem. You see, every time I buy vanilla ice cream my car won't
start. If I get any other kind of ice cream the car starts just fine. I want you to know I'm serious about this question, no matter
how silly it sounds: 'What is there about a Pantsmobile that makes it not start when I get vanilla ice cream, and easy to start whenever I get any other kind?'"
The Pantsmobile company President was understandably skeptical about the letter, but he sent an engineer to check it out anyway. He had arranged to meet the man just after dinner time, so the two hopped into the car and drove to the grocery store. The man bought vanilla ice cream that night and, sure enough, after they came back to the car it wouldn't start for several minutes.
The engineer returned for three more nights. The first night, the man got chocolate. The car started right away. The second night, he got strawberry and again the car started right up. The third night he bought vanilla and the car failed to start.
There was a logical reason why the man's car wouldn't start when he bought vanilla ice cream. What was it?
(The hint may prove helpful)
A complaint was received by the president of a major car company:
"This is the fourth time I have written you, and I don't blame you for not answering me because I must sound crazy, but it is a
fact that we have a tradition in our family of having ice cream for dessert after dinner each night. Every night after we've eaten, the family votes on which flavor of ice cream we should have and I drive down to the store to get it. I recently purchased a new Pantsmobile from your company and since then my trips to the store have created a problem. You see, every time I buy vanilla ice cream my car won't
start. If I get any other kind of ice cream the car starts just fine. I want you to know I'm serious about this question, no matter
how silly it sounds: 'What is there about a Pantsmobile that makes it not start when I get vanilla ice cream, and easy to start whenever I get any other kind?'"
The Pantsmobile company President was understandably skeptical about the letter, but he sent an engineer to check it out anyway. He had arranged to meet the man just after dinner time, so the two hopped into the car and drove to the grocery store. The man bought vanilla ice cream that night and, sure enough, after they came back to the car it wouldn't start for several minutes.
The engineer returned for three more nights. The first night, the man got chocolate. The car started right away. The second night, he got strawberry and again the car started right up. The third night he bought vanilla and the car failed to start.
There was a logical reason why the man's car wouldn't start when he bought vanilla ice cream. What was it?
(The hint may prove helpful)
Hint
The man lived in an extremely hot city, and this took place during the summer. Also, the layout of the grocery store was such that it took the man less time to buy vanilla ice cream.Answer
Vanilla ice cream was the most popular flavor and was on display in a little case near the express check out, while the other flavors were in the back of the store and took more time to select and check out. This mattered because the man's car was experiencing vapor lock, which is excess heat boiling the fuel in the fuel line and the resulting air bubbles blocking the flow of fuel until the car has enough time to cool. When the car was running there was enough pressure to move the bubbles along, but not when the car was trying to start.Moral of the story: Sometimes even insane sounding problems are real. A better moral: Chocolate ice cream cures vapor lock.
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Comments
May 06, 2004
I used to own an AMC Gremlin that used to get vapor lock all the time. Of course, even when it didn't it was a POC. Fun teaser Rows!
May 06, 2004
That chocolate and strawberry icecream must have been in the way, way, way back of a really, really big store. I thought he may have gone to a different, closer store for the vanilla.
Nice one. One of the best situation teasers actually!
Nice one. One of the best situation teasers I've read in a long while.
Cute, but i would have included the hint in the joke to make it less obvious. I love the moral!!
I guess you have to know a little about cars to get this one. Nontheless, good joke!
good teaser GREAT second moral!!! GO CHOCOLATE!!!
Yeah, your answer was good, but I think the real one is clear: The car just doesn't like vanilla icecream.
I like the morals
Interesting but i guess you'd have to know a little about cars to get this one. but good teaser.
Nice, but it's imposible without the hint.
very cool situation, though i think i heard this one before...
How the heck are we supposed to know that?
i figured it had something to do with the amount of time the car needed to cool down, though the idea of chocolate icecream being a cure for vapour lock does appeal to me...
I got it but the other ice creams must have been very far back and the lines must have beeen extremeley bad. Also, the moral could be that vanilla ice cream is bad luck
Cool! (I am very corney at times
Very funny, and the hint did help a lot. What kind of town likes vanilla the most?!
good situation and funny
I have read this before, so I got it right away, but great idea to put it up as a teaser! It's one of the best management lessons I have learnt to date!
Fun Teaser and good life lesson.
WOW! I really like this one!!!!!
That was cool! Nice one!
what a tease, of the inane possibilities, the probablity of this being a solvable problem is very high, thinking out"side" the box. display case, really dude... i dont know if that trivia much more than it is an open door question, i'm sure it's good for the brain, braingle guy 8 odessius- 2
i never thought it was possible
this is just amazing,though vapour locking does occur,the manner in which the man faced the problem was really funny, no wonder the rpesident didn't answer him da 1st 3 times
This one is my fav!!!
ur nuts. the real moral of the story is "Chocolate ice-cream is just ALWAYS better."
I don't think that teasers that require obscure knowledge like that are very fair.
I don't know much about cars so instead of hypothesizing the VP, I though of the car as a single "System" and everything else came together.
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