RAY: Hi we're back. You're listening to Car Talk with us, Click and Clack the Tappet brothers and we're here to talk about cars, car repair and the answer to the last week's puzzler. And I made this a very brief puzzler.
TOM: I can't remember it at all.
RAY: I didn't think you would. Here it is.
TOM: Yeah.
RAY: I got this from my son Andrew. We were at the bookstore one day and he was perusing one of those books that tells you if you're suitable to becoming a Mensa member. It has a book of, you know logic puzzles --
TOM: I do recall this, yes.
RAY: Or whatever you call this. And of course he was looking at that and I was checking out the Xena The Warrior Princess calendar. I mean they were right next to each other. I couldn't help myself.
TOM: Yeah.
RAY: And I gave, I did give a hint that if this puzzler were not in the Mensa wannabe book --
TOM: It would be simple.
RAY: That you'd probably get it.
TOM: Yeah.
RAY: And here it was. I'm going to give you a series of numbers --
TOM: Is this the one about the World War II planes?
RAY: Yes, get a pencil. Write these down.
TOM: Oh, yeah.
RAY: OK.
TOM: I'm going to write it down. Go ahead.
RAY: 2, 9, 7, 9, 12. And that group of numbers I say represents the number 7.
TOM: 7. Got it.
RAY: OK?
TOM: Mm hm.
RAY: The next group of numbers is 3, 5, 0. 3 comma 5 comma 0, and that represents the number 2. The question was, how would you write the number 10?
TOM: OK, I got it. 3, 9, 12.
RAY: Exactly. But when it was, embedded in that Mensa book, you say gee, what does it represent, what if I add these numbers up, and remember they add up to the 7 cubed.
TOM: And let's see, this could be a base 13 problem.
RAY: Exactly. All we're doing is substituting, each of the numbers, the 2, 9, 7, 9, 12, for the letters of the word seven.
TOM: So 2 equals s, 9 equals e, 7 equals v, and so forth.
RAY: Right, and then 3, 5, 0 is two and thus three, which is T, 9, which is E, and 12, which is N, spells ten.
TOM: And how many other words could you come up with these few numbers.
RAY: Well, a lot that we can't say on National Public Radio, but ton, won, two, two even, Sven. You know what Sven, if you, if you live in Norway, your name is 2, 7, 9, 12.
TOM: Yeah, that's it. Cool. Sven.
RAY: Who's our winner this week?
TOM: Oh, winner. The winner is Frank Freeman from Greensboro, North Carolina, and for being chosen at random as our winner, Frank, you're going to get a brand new Car Talk tour jacket.
RAY: What, what does he get?
TOM: He's going to win a brand new Car Talk t-shirt. A tour jacket?
RAY: We're giving those away?
TOM: We're giving away the tour jacket?
RAY: They cost like 75 bucks!
[ Car Talk Puzzler ]