The Asymmetric Commute

RAY: I guess there are other possible answers than the one that we came up with, but let's assume that guy number one works at some place like a fast-food restaurant on the highway. So he gets on the highway --

TOM: Yeah.

RAY: -- near his house, drives five miles to work.

TOM: This is what I thought.

RAY: But to get home, he's got to drive to the next exit which is five miles away.

TOM: To turn around and come back.

RAY: Five miles away from home, another five miles just to get to the opposite side of the highway where he was working.

TOM: That's 10.

RAY: And then five miles to his house.

TOM: Fifteen.

RAY: So 5 miles out; 15 miles to get back home. The day the boss asked him to report to the other location, it was the Burger King directly across the highway from what he usually worked at, in which case it was 15 miles to get to work --

TOM: And five miles to get back.

RAY: Pretty good, huh?

TOM: I love it.

RAY: Do we have a winner?

TOM: Yeah, we have a winner. The winner this week is Mike Brickseus from Springfield, Oregon. And for having his answer selected at random from among all the correct answers that we got, Mike will get a 26-dollar gift certificate to the Shameless Commerce Division at cartalk.com, with which he can get our new four-CD set; four complete shows called Four Perfectly Good Hours.

RAY: As in you've just wasted four perfectly good hours, right?

TOM: Exactly. That's yours, Mike, for being this week's puzzler winner, and congratulations.

[ Car Talk Puzzler ]