Only Time Will Tell

RAY: Here's the answer. Most people I've given this to have gotten the wrong answer. The obvious ones are 2:22, 3:33, 4:44, and 5:55. But let's start at noon time, shall we?

TOM: Yeah.

RAY: OK, if we start at noon, we clearly don't have anything at noon. The first one is 12:11. There are three ones. I didn't say that only three numbers are repeated, but three. Right? So 12:11 has three ones and 12:22 has three twos. And the next one is 1:11, 2:22, 3:33, 4:44, the of course aforementioned 5:55, and then nothing happens for a long time, until 10:00, and that's one that a lot of people miss. 10:00 has three zeroes.

TOM: Oh, of course.

RAY: And then, of course, there's 10:11 and then 11:01. And here's one that people miss all the time, 11:10. And then of course, 11:11 has four, but even though it has four, it has three, right?

TOM: Yeah.

RAY: And then 11:12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 31, 41, 51, and that adds up to 24. So from 12 noon to 12 midnight, we've got 24. So in a 24-hour period, we have 48. Pretty cute, huh? Do we have a winner?

TOM: It is pretty cute. Our winner this week is Jeff Morehouse from Juneau, Alaska. Congratulations, Jeff!

[ Car Talk Puzzler ]