The Best of Car Talk - #2478: Kickin' Some Pinewood Derby Butt!

Episode Date: September 28, 2024

Kathy from Oregon is the Den Mom for her son's local Cub Scout troop and she's bound and determined to teach the little guys important lessons about craftwork, sportsmanship and how parents can mess up a good thing by hijacking their kids' fun. Ladies and gentlemen, start your wooden engines and check out this episode of the Best of Car Talk.Get access to hundreds of episodes in the Car Talk archive when you sign up for Car Talk+ at plus.npr.org/cartalkLearn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

When it comes to your health, Shortwave is a science show you can count on. We bring you clear information rooted in the best research to keep you and your loved ones safe and well. Listen to the Shortwave podcast from NPR. Hello and welcome to Car Talk from National Public Radio with us, click and clack the Tappet Brothers, and we're broadcasting this week from the Department of Amore here at Car Talk Plaza. Now, this is a request from the Department of Amore here at Car Talk Plaza. Now, this is a request from the Department of Amore. Actually, we've been told that some of our best calls

over the years have involved matters of the heart. Well, you know the best calls haven't involved solving car problems. There had to be something. Anyway, here's the deal. We thought for Valentine's Day, actually the show right after Valentine's Day this year, that's two weeks from today in case you're counting

Yeah, we thought that if we could get enough calls we would devote an entire show to shall we say matters of the heart Yeah, so today we'd like to pre-solicit. That's like pre-boarding right get on before you get on We like to pre-solicit calls to see if there's any interest in having us act for one brief shining moment as America's foremost love counselors. We've been dying to try this. This is going to be fun, no? Oh, my brother, as we all know, loves to do marriage counseling, and he's had more marriages than anybody, so who's more qualified? So if you have a love issue, a dispute with a spouse or significant other, or a car issue

that is, shall we say, emblematic of a relationship issue, and you'd like to be counseled by us, me and my knucklehead brother. Here's what you do. Call our regular number anytime, 1-800-332-9287. Leave us a message about your problem, and if there's enough people interested in asking us these sorts of questions, we'll do a whole show on it in a couple of weeks to celebrate what? Valentine's Day. Of course. We just have to know if there are enough people who need this kind of help from us, so if you do, call 1-800-332-9287

and leave us a message. Just imagine, you already imagined this. Yeah. We could be doing to people's relationships what we've been doing to their cars all these years. Oh the horror, the horror of it all. Well anyway today we're talking about cars. We're gonna stick to the subject today. So if you have a question for us you can call us at 1-800-332-9287. Hello you're on Car Talk. Hello. Hello. This is Ed from Baltimore. Hi Ed. Ed from Baltimore. How you doing? I'm good. Good. doing i'm good good thanks i've been told by various people who have emailed us stop with the small talk about asking people how to spell their names and where they're from and the towns and where it's near and all

that stuff so is this edward one d or two d just one yeah what's up that well okay here's my question my girlfriend and brand new ninety seven pattern cherry red she was it well of course it has to injection uh... the other day she went out to try and started and wouldn't start and so i want to try and start a win-win story there was a tell-tale order of

gas i said aha she must have tried to step on the gas when she was starting at in it got flooded nice right so i took all the spark plugs out i let them dry out and try again and didn't work so i said okay this calls for drastic measures uh... said

okay so i took them out again and i said how do you get rid of too much gas in the cylinder don't tell me you didn't took a match a burning match down on the phone i i know it well actually i envisioned worse i thought you went got your propane torch yeah that's why I would have tried

That might have worked. No, no So and here she was standing next to me as her eyes get three sizes bigger Yeah, when she sees this ball of flame. Yes shooting straight up. Yeah, did you hurt yourself? I'd know my still have my eyebrows and you how about your hand wasn't your hand holding the match? I had a really long pliers And how about your hand? Wasn't your hand holding the match? I had a really long, um, pliers. Ah, so you had some idea that this might not be a great idea. Right, that's why he had his girlfriend holding the pliers. And I was wondering if I could have blown up her nice new Saturn by doing that. Yeah, you could have. Unlikely, however, but you could have.

It's unlikely. I mean, it's designed, it has protections has protections is designed so that flames that shoot back through the intake manifold and up through the throttle body i really can't get past very readily get past the air cleaner me don't forget your card does backfire from time to time if something goes wrong with it so it is it is designed to to protect itself although you could have set it on fire but the bigger danger was that you could have set your sleeve on fire but it's true and that's right so did you finally get it started what i

finally did it is uh... little smattering about cars and i don't get to convince us of that but okay well you might not well i disconnected the fuel injector fuse and turned over for about almost a minute to come below the gas now very good excellent and then put the spark plugs back in and fired right up. Very good. It had a lot of smoke coming out of it. Oh that's okay. Well I'm just

curious about what caused this in the first place. It's very hard to flood this car. I know it was a very rainy wet day. I don't know if that anything to do with it. I mean typically a car like this will flood only because it's not getting the proper spark. Right and a very wet day could cause that if the spark plug wires were questionable. Even if they are good a very wet day can cause the problem no matter what. Yeah but it shouldn't. It shouldn't but it could. I mean why go out and spend $15,000 for a brand new car?

Right you can get a car for $500 that'll do this. I got a car that'll do this. I paid $200 for it. By the way, when you had them out, you could have, a much safer thing would have been to take the plugs and put them in the oven for a half an hour at 350. Yeah, you want to know.

Or until slightly browned on the top. Well, I let it match to them when I pulled them out. But if you had warmed them up to 350, it would have driven on the top. Well, I let it match to them when I pulled them out. But if you had warmed them up to 350, it would have driven off the gas. Or you could have warmed them up with a butane lighter or some such thing, and then put them back in while they were still warm, and it probably would have started up.

Or you could have done none of these and held the gas pedal to the floor. Like you would do with a carbureted car. Holding the pedal to the floor essentially would have done what you tried to accomplish by taking the plugs out. It lets the gas get out of the cylinders. And what it also does is cut the injector pulse in half for most cars.

But you should take it back to the dealer and find out why it didn't start in the rain. You may have a bad spark plug wire or two and that's all it takes. Even though the car is new. Who knows? We'll have to do that. Yeah, it shouldn't have done that. See you later. Thanks. Thanks for your call.

Okay. Bye bye. Bye. 1-800-332-9287. Hello, you're on Car Talk. Hello, this is Sophie. Sophie! Sophie!

I'm calling from St. Louis. St. Louis? And that has to mean, if your name is Sophie and you're calling from St. Louis, if you're not Polish, I don't know what. No, I'm not Polish. You're not? No kidding? No, no, no. I'm from the country that you like so much. Oh no!

You didn't recognize the accent, Tommy? I wasn't listening to an accent. Evidently not. Oh my god. I'm French. Yes, we know that now. You are. What do you mean you know that now? We know it from your accent.

Oh yeah, right. You sound like my wife's relatives. Oh really? At least the ones that speak English. Oh yeah, right. Oh, the ones that will stay. They can all speak English, but they won't. So damn stubborn.

My god. And yet stubborn, my God. And yet you, Sophie, sound like a rather pleasant person. How long have you been away from the mother country? You should know. You should know all French are, in spite of what you're saying all the time. All French are what? Stubborn or wonderful?

No, wonderful. Oh, we know that, of course. Yeah, right. We're just having fun. Well you know the truth is that the Frenchman that I knew the best. Oh really? Was a fellow named Sydney Darmon. What? That's her French name? Darmon? D-A-R-M-O-N. Oh that's your pronunciation. Darmon. Darmon. I called him Sydney Darmone and he responded to that. Oh great.

So stop correcting me. Damn French, you're always correcting everybody. And he was a wonderful person with the greatest sense of humor, always telling jokes. I don't know where he is today. See? Probably not in France anymore. No, probably not. I think he immigrated.

Just like me. What's the matter with your Le Car? See? Probably not in France anymore. Probably not. I think he emigrated. What's the matter with your le car? Well, I have a Saab 900 1991. Oh. And guess what? It's laughing. It's laughing? No kidding. Yeah, it's laughing. It's really laughing.

And it's not even French. Everybody makes fun of me because my car is laughing. It goes like, hmm hmm hmm hmm hmm hmm hmm. It does. And the noise is coming from one of the wheels? I don't know. No, you don't know? I never thought of the wheel. I thought it was coming from the trunk or from the back seat or something like this and my mechanic looked at it and he couldn't find anything that was wrong. And it does it all the time that you're moving? You must be moving. No, it does it all the time that I'm moving at a low speed, in a low gear.

Right. With your foot off the gas. That's right. Well, yes, exactly. My foot off the gas. And this fellow drove the car, your mechanic, he drove it, he heard the noise. That's right.

And he couldn't find it? No, he thought, you know, that there was something with maybe the back seat, you know, how it is on the, on the sab, this back seat unfolds and he thought maybe something in there was not lubricated enough. So he tried to do something to it and he's going to lubricate the back seat. Well, it has the fold down seat. Yeah, I got a bad seat.

But if he could, if he hears it, he should, he should be able to find it. Okay. I'll tell him you said that. Yeah, I got a bad seat. But if he could, if he hears it, he should be able to find it. Okay, I'll tell him you said that. Yeah, tell him, yeah, he should be embarrassed that he can't find it. He shouldn't give up so easily. Yeah, I mean, he should let you drive. He's a very nice guy, so I trust him. I mean, the way to do it is he gets in the car in the passenger seat and he rolls down that window, leaves the other three windows closed and sticks his ear out the window and you make it happen then he gets in the Backseat opens that window does the same thing. I don't have a window. It's a two doors So you know the window all the windows in the back don't all right then break one out break a window

And then patch it up with duct tape That's how we are, French. Well he can also fashion what we've used from time to time is we've taken a piece of hose and actually taped it to the side of the car and used that to distinguish whether the noise is coming from the right or the left side. So you have to break it down. You have to do right, left, front, back, and then you isolate it to one quadrant and then you attack that. Usually with a frontal attack you send send the Marines in first, and then the aerial bombardments. And then the French foreign legion.

But try, tell them to try a piece of hose. It could be something like a stuck brake as well. You know, that would only make, it could be a disc brake pad moving going, and it would happen. Oh yeah, that's pretty good. See, I like the pad. Or it could be one of those miniature French poodles stuck in my car. A little schnauzer perhaps. I didn't buy the car in use, so maybe that's what it is.

Maybe, but it should be easy to find. Well, Sophie, welcome to this country. I'm glad that you left that other country that you were born in and didn't have anything to do with being born in. And now you've used your more mature mental powers to choose a country which is even worse, I think. But what the heck. But welcome and it's a pleasure to have talked to you. Okay, thank you. See you, Sophie. Bon chance.

Bon chance. Yeah. And a good chance to you too. We'll be right back with the answer to the puzzler right after these messages. Support for this podcast and the following message come from Wyse, the app that makes managing your money in different currencies easy. With Wyse, you can send and spend money internationally at the mid-market exchange rate. No guesswork and no hidden fees. Learn more about how Wyse could work for you at Wyse.com. This message comes from Wondery and Pineapple Street Studios for the new podcast Hysterical.

Hear about one of the most shocking outbreaks in American history, believed by some to be the most severe case of mass hysteria since the Salem witch trials. Binge the series only on Wondery Plus now. Are you looking for something a little different in your 2024 election coverage? Here at the It's Been A Minute podcast, we look at politics from a culture perspective. We look at why name-calling seems to be in, how influencers are changing the game, and how the candidates' fashion choices are redefining power dressing. We're giving you a different way to look at the 2024 election. Listen to It's Been A Minute from NPR. legendary musicians. Visit npr.org slash how women made music to pre-order now.

If you can remember last week's puzzler. How much would you give me? Would you give me a hundred bucks? No, but I will find you the letters D and E for the back of your dodge dart. She don't have to drive around with it saying dog anymore. No, I lost the G. It says doh. Doh? You lost the G too? I lost the G too. Uh, yeah, I've got it. I know the puzzler. Sweden. Ooh. Nineteen something.

Yes. Fifty-three, fifty-four, fifty-five. Fifty-five? Sixty-three, sixty-four, sixty-five. Sixty-three, sixty-four, sixty-five. Numbers. See, numbers. Yeah. That's it, man. Something happened. What was it?

I happen to know what it was, so I don't remember what the question was. Here it is Yeah, and it's by the way before I do the puzzler. Yeah, I have to make a just a quick comment About email email puzzlers. Is it my hair? No, that was this next thing I was gonna comment on you're gonna send an email puzzle to send the answer Yes, there have been several people What'd you tell me this morning? Well, they send a puzzler and say, if you want the answer, email me. Oh, yeah.

No, you don't want any answer that badly. No, no, unless it's really great, in which case, I won't email you anyway. Yeah, you're not gonna email anybody unless the word hot is in the title. And make them brief. Yeah. And in that spirit, this one's brief. Here it is. Yeah.

We're in Sweden. It's a weekday. Yeah. 1965. Weekday. Weekday. Tuesday. The summer, which means it must've been like June 30th.

One day. All traffic in the whole country stops at 5 PM. Yeah. A few moments later. Michael Rennie walks out. in the whole country stops at 5 p.m. A few moments later, Michael Rennie walks out. It says, Gort, Clotoo, Barana, Nickto. The traffic starts up again, but it has never been the same since. What happened at 5 p.m. on that day, and for extra credit, why did they do it on a weekday?

Why did it happen on a weekday? Why did they do it at all? Well? Why did it happen on a weekday? Yeah. Why did they do it at all? Well, they had a very good reason for doing it. Oh, they did? Yes. The Swedes drove cars not unlike ours, with the steering wheel on the left-hand side of the car. However, for some strange reason that I don't understand,

they drove on the left side of the road, like the English and the Australians and a few others do. Japanese. Japanese. Yes, to name a few others do. Japanese. Japanese, yes, to name a few. Thais. Hong Kongs.

Hong Kong, not for long. Hong Kong, not for long. And they decided to change and drive on the right hand side, like the rest of the civilized world whose steering wheels were on the left hand side of the car. So they had 5 PM on whatever afternoon this was, they changed over. And the reason they did it at 5 p.m. on a work day was they didn't want to do it first thing in the morning because that would have been calamitous. They wanted people to go to work during the week. And if I'm not mistaken, I think it may have even been a Friday that

they did it. Okay, so I drive to work on the left-hand side of the street. And all week long you've been discussing it with your coworkers. Right. Friday's the day. Friday's the day. Friday of the street. And all week long, you've been discussing it with your coworkers. Right. Friday's the day. Friday's the day. Friday's the day. We roll from left to right.

Five o'clock. Yeah. Don't forget. What day is it? Today? No. Friday. So people come out of work after having discussed it all week and then all day long, they get

in their cars to go home. And they say, hey, don't forget. And they begin driving on the other. Boy, that must have been pretty exciting. I would have loved to have seen that. I am really curious about, A, how come they were driving on the left side of the road anyway with right-hand drive cars, so to speak?

And B, why did they decide to change? Well, because it must have been awful to drive on the wrong side of the street with that car. Well, why were they making the wrong cars? Why weren't they buying all British cars? Oh, if it were France, we would understand. Yes. No British cars? One year! Alright, who's our winner?

The winner is Jacqueline Bourie of Portland, Oregon. And Jacqueline, for having your correct answer chosen at random, as I would have this week, you will get our newest Car Talk t-shirt, which we call the Sistine Wrench. Oh, this now, this is a t-shirt. What is that great piece of art when the two hands, the hand of God and the finger of man touch what is that called I mean we call it the Sistine Chapel shirt except one of the hands is actually holding an open-end wrench three eights oh three eights I look like seven sixteenths to me no no no you sure it could have been 11 millimeter what size t-shirt were you looking at oh that's Yeah, so this is a great

This is a great all sure great design as soon as they come off the presses Which should be any day now you have your very own we do we know the name of the designer of that Dougie? Yeah, Michelangelo Actually had help from Anne Rose Kitagawa and Ian Coleman of Somerville, Massachusetts. Thanks guys. And it's a great design, not like that stupid... Oh, I'm sorry. Congratulations.

Congratulations to you, Jacqueline. Jacqueline. I love those French pronunciations. Anyway, we have a new puzzler coming up during the second half of Car Talk, plus rumor has it we're going to play Stump the Chum, so don't go anywhere. In the meantime, you can call us at 1-800-332-9287. Hello, you're on Car Talk. Hello?

Hey! Who's this? Hi, how are you doing? This is Eric. I'm calling you from Monmouth, Maine. Eric? Yeah. Monmouth?

Yep. Small town. Yeah, we're not supposed to talk about where you're from anymore. Okay, fine. Then, okay. We don't care where you're from. We don talk about where you're from anymore. Okay, fine. We don't care where you're from. We don't care where you're from, but is Eric with a K or with a C? Ah, we don't care about that either. With a C.

And how far up is Monmouth? Oh, it's up near Augusta. All right, where's that? Where's that? It's an hour north of Portland. Where's that? Oh, and Portland is like... Three hours north of Boston. So you like three hours north of boston

so you are three hours north of boston that's not bad yeah i've i've actually been to portland i've been to boston uh... i didn't see you uh... so what's up eric

well listen i have uh... an eighty six dodge uh... four-wheel drive full-size pickup truck and uh... it's a great truck truck, but in the last few years, it's developed a problem where it doesn't really like cold weather. And so as the temperature gets down around five degrees or 10 degrees, the steering wheel starts to squeak. But that's not the real problem. About five to 10 below zero, I'll park the car are going to work

and a half an hour later the portal start blowing and uh... the same thing on really really really cold nights uh... no you'll park it in a few hours later the portal start going to have to run outside open the door beat the horn that i was beeping it well it's driving it men to stop and uh driving it, and then it stops. Yeah. And it's a drill. Oh really, that stops it.

So when you bang on the horn. Yep. It stops. The horn button. That's good. That's right, it's good. Yeah, that's good. Well, it's good that I can stop it, sure.

But you have to run out in minus five degree weather in your jammies. I've run out in minus 25 degree weather in my jammies. You run fast, I bet, huh? And that seat must be cold. Yeah, that's plus. Well, have you taken it to the shop to have them look at it?

I mean, have they done anything? Yeah, I took it to a shop and they took the steering wheel off and they looked all around on the inside there and they said, geez, I have no idea what it is and put it back on. Okay, here's- Oh, they didn't twist and put it back on. Okay, here's... Oh, they didn't twist and bend anything?

No. Okay, here's the way... No, I mean, they could have figured out... My guess is that you have a faulty horn switch. Okay. The thing in the steering column. But here's how you're going to figure it out. Okay.

Let them show you how to remove the steering wheel or maybe you know how to do that already. Okay. And what you want to do is the next time it's going to be 10 below. Yeah. Or colder, you want to take the steering wheel off and lay it on the seat. Okay. And what you want to do is the next time it's going to be 10 below. Yeah. Or colder. You want to take the steering wheel off and lay it on the seat. Okay. And if the horn blows then, then the problem is not in the, in the, in the steering, uh, in the horn button because you will have removed that by taking the wheel off.

And the problem is either in the circuitry or probably in the relay. The thing is I may have to do that three or four times. You may have to, but this is an important thing. You have to solve this problem. This is a very curious thing. We've never really understood why this happens. It's one of those rare Ponds and Fleischmann cold fusion things that's happening. Strange things happen when you get temperatures below zero. And for whatever reason, they decided not to design it for all temperatures.

Yeah, I mean when it comes up in the engineering meetings in Detroit. They say, well, this is not going to work at ten below zero. They can take it. They're tough, they can take it. So what if they wake up in the middle of the night? That's right. I mean, you could also, if you didn't want to go through this bother, you could just find where the relay is and unplug the relay every night. You could do that or you could also if you didn't want to go through this bother you could just find where the relay is and unplug the relay every night Oh, huh could do that or you could find the fuse and unplug that or or put a toggle switch in with the with a fuse is Right, but I would suggest if in the interest of science that you take off the wheel Very good

You'll find out that with the steering wheel off and sitting on the seat the problem is solved And then you know and not in the steering wheel. Where would it be? Oh, it could be the relay. It could be. That's why this test is so definitive. If it blows with the steering wheel off, buy a relay. Alright. And if that doesn't fix it, buy a truck. Or just disconnect something, take the fuse out, and you'll never know why it happens, but it won't happen anyway, so you won't care. I'll give it a shot and I'll let you know that's right I mean in a few months it'll be winter anyway and you'll have to worry about it what season they call this season oh this is brutal they go from fall to winter to brutal and then back to winter it rained last night so it's almost spring awesome I've been to

the crocuses are still about a foot below the surface. See you Eric. Thanks for calling Eric. Bye bye. We'll be right back with more calls and the new puzzle right after these messages. Once again, we find ourselves in an unprecedented election. And with all that's happening in the lead up to the big day, a weekly podcast just won't cut it. Get a better grasp of where we stand as a nation every weekday on the NPR Politics Podcast. Here our seasoned reporters dig into the issues that are shaping voters' decisions and understand how the latest updates play into the bigger picture. The NPR Politics Podcast. Listen on Spotify.

On the TED Radio Hour, Harvard Business School professor Amy Edmondson says giving negative feedback to employees is the kind thing for bosses to do, even if it doesn't seem nice. Nice is the easy way out. It makes me comfortable in the moment, but it doesn't take care of you and it doesn't take care of the future. Ideas about making teams work. That's on the TED Radio Hour podcast from NPR. How does the brain process memories? Why is AI a solution and a problem for our climate?

What is leadership in 2025 and beyond? The TED Radio Hour explores the biggest questions and the most complicated ideas of our time with the world's greatest thinkers. Listen now to the TED Radio Hour from NPR. Hey, it's Mike and Ian. We're the hosts of How to Do Everything from the team at Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me.

Every week we take your questions and find someone much smarter than us to answer them. Questions like, how do I safely jump out of a moving vehicle? How do I dangerously jump out of a moving vehicle? We can't help you, but we will find someone who can. Listen to the How to Do Everything podcast from NPR. Look, raising a teen is tough. You know, it's always been hard to be a teenager and it's always been hard to raise a teenager.

I think a lot of parents feel like their kid has broken up with them. But this school year can be different with LifeKit's guide on supporting your teenager. Listen to the LifeKit podcast from NPR. Hi, we're back to listen to Car Talk on National Public Radio with us with us clicking clack the tappet brothers and we're here to discuss cars car repair and avian airborne ordinance and collateral damage and all that stuff What you know? I? Don't know when was this last week couple of weeks ago Someone guy calls us and says he's got two identical cars one is is white and one is green, and the birds attack the white one like mad and the green, nothing.

And man, did we get theories. I mean, I'll just give you some of the titles of the theories. The hiding the droppings theory. Nah. B-52 or Blue Heron. The monster territorial market theory. theory not be fifty two all blue heron the monster territorial market theory the smart bomb never get the one of them was called the randomness theory and i was called

pooling the randomness i'll read one little note here this is from John Davenport. His is B-52, a blue Heron. An avian attack recounted. I actually experienced an attack by a great gray Heron on October 13, 1996, traveling north on route I-94, about six miles north of East Berlin, Pennsylvania, and exactly the spot where I have been nailed

twice for speeding by the Pennsylvania State Police. It was early morning and I spotted this beautiful Heron slowly flying from east to west at an altitude of 250 feet and 600 yards ahead. I was traveling at exactly 48 miles an hour. I mean, this guy... Oh, this guy has done his homework. As I watched, I noted the appearance of a gray plume attached to the bird that slowly separated. Just like those slow motion views from the bomb bays of the B-52s. There is no question in my mind that I was the target. In one of my many attempts to pass a bare boat sailing course, I don't know what that is, I was taught that if you line up on a boat that will cross your path with a spot

on the rail and the boat continues to line up on that same spot, then that's the spot where the sucker's going to hit you. Applying similar techniques, I closed the roof and held my course. The bird crossed the road just as I crossed the bird's path, and a couple of seconds later, splat, splat, splat! A perfect hit in my windshield, my bike rack, and the sunroof. High above, I'm sure, the heron said, yes! I love it. Maybe said yes maybe this is genetic what other weapons would a bird have to divert the lead buffalo heading for its nesting site ah I say you gotta admire the performance of a fine athlete I like that yes yeah if you want to we're gonna put all of these letters on the website someplace

Where we're gonna put them on the mail bag So check the mail bag first chance you get on Cartog.com and there are some theories here that will knock your socks Can you see? I realize after hearing this that for most birds this is probably sport. Well, it could be. Yeah, it really is. Boy, they got it made like dogs. I mean, the world is your bathroom. I mean, what could be better than that?

All right. All right. No more fooling around. It's time for the new puzzler. Oh, yeah. Here it is in its elegant brevity. During world war II, the Japanese discovered a secret weapon, which they had hoped to use to their military advantage.

Ooh. They didn't, it turns out, but this discovery. They tried though. They did, they didn't detry, but it was not to their military advantage. They did use it. Yeah. Okay. And, and the question is, and this discovery is something that is used by virtually every country in the world today, daily.

Is it not? It certainly is. Certainly is. Not to mention certain industries. Certain industries. Oh, this is good. What was the discovery and how was paper involved? That's a little hint.

Or, there's something to throw you off course. It's either a hint or it's not. Okay. If you think you know the answer, send it to us at Puzzler Tower, Cart Talk Plaza, Box 3500. I forgot my glasses today. Box 3500, Harvard Square, Cambridge, All of Fair City.

Math 02238. Or you can email us your answer from CarTalk.com by clicking on the Talk to Car Talk section. And we've had many, many visitors to CarTalk.com to send us answers to the puzzles and new puzzlers as well. Yeah. Don't forget if you're sending us a puzzler send the answer. Don't ask us to figure it out. Okay anyway if we choose your correct answer at random as the winner next week and you catch us we'll send you a brand new Cartalk Sistine Wrench t-shirt. Michelangelo approved. Michelangelo approved. I'm sure. What was Michelangelo's last name?

Buonarotti. Whoa I'm impressed must be one of your trivia questions huh? Well of course I would know he runs a pizzeria he's been there for 12 years now down in the North End. If you'd like to call us to the question about your car, the number is 1-800-332-9287. Hello, you're on Car Talk. How you guys doing? Good, good. Who's this? Hi, I'm Kathy Lambas. I'm the den leader of Wolf Den 7, pack 35, in Tualatin, Oregon.

Wow. So you're a den mother. I'm a den mom. I have the uniform to prove it. Is that Girl Scouts? That is Cub Scouts. Little second grade boys. Oh boys. Yeah. So I just happened to be sanding the wheels of the Pinewood Derby car with my variable speed sander. And phoning a few parents for just some friendly advice. Oh, and how to make the Pinewood Derby thing go faster? That's the one.

And of course, my son was involved totally in the whole process. Well, I was involved in the Pinewood Derby thing for many years, having seen two boys through Cub Scouts. Is this where it all got started? This is where it all got started. Actually, my younger boy wasn't interested. The older, Louis was interested in Cub Scouts, and he saw it through right to Boy Scouts. Did he?

Then they threw him out some moral charge. I don't know what it was. But anyway... He was in parental space. It was. I was disappointed, I guess, that the parents got involved in it to the extent that they did. After all, it's designed so that the kids can learn. Oh, get serious. Get that grant. all it's designed so that the kids can learn. Oh get serious!

Get a grant! Right, I mean, you see this six year old kid with a belt sander? What this thing is, for those people that don't know, the Cub Scouts nationwide have a Pinewood Derby where they give these kids a block of wood. It's a little thing. And a bunch of, a block of wood is like six by two by two, is that what it is? That's right. Okay, and they give you a couple of wheels and some little nails to attach the wheels to the block. And you can do anything you want with this thing

with a piece of sandpaper and a broken piece of glass. And you can basically sand and smooth and whatever, and you can lubricate the axles, which are nails, with graphite. And you can paint it, and you can do anything else like that, but you can't add weight to it, except more than a couple of quarters worth of weight, right? Oh, you can add. That's my question. Boy, your perception.

That's your question. The car can weigh up to five ounces. Oh, and the block of wood weighs one ounce. The block of wood, when you get it, weighs about three, but you got to, gotta you know you're monkey with a standard down break and again so each car kind of take back so you want to know where to win bed the lead weights i let me know that any lead weights at all any lead weight any cake could be

any weight that i'll get and where should you put them well and the track is about twenty feet it the first maybe third or a little bit more is the forty five degree drop Well, and the track is about 20 feet. The first maybe third or a little bit more is a 45 degree drop. Right, so they give you the head of steam. Right. So they launch the cars from the top.

And then it levels out? And it levels out. And the cars are almost always equal going off the drop, but you get on the straightaway and the men are separated from the boys literally. Yeah. Oh. Well, you know why they're equal. you get on the straightaway and the men are separated from the boys literally yeah well you know why they're equal galileo figured that out because they're falling they're falling they're in free fall basic almost falling bodies and as we

know free fall doesn't matter if you drop a ton of feathers or a ton of bricks we have learned through a multitude of telephone calls and research, what does matter the most is getting as close as possible to the five ounces. Because if your car weighs 4.9 ounces, forget it. Sure, well we know because it's one half MV squared. One half MV squared. That's just the kinetic energy. That's how much kinetic energy it has and that's and that's equivalent MV is momentum Yes, so what?

M M mass What does momentum have to do with velocity? Well my question is F equals MA What it means is that if you look at the equation k equals one half mv squared, that your car has the potential to do more damage when it crashes into something if it's heavier. Correct. But it's not going to go any faster. Sir, I've never understood this. Well, you're about to.

I flunked 801 twice. Professor Teaser. From Professor Laszlo Teaser. Mr. Margolosi, I'm going to do you a favor. I'm going to give you an F. Again. Again. And I said, Professor Tisa, thank you.

God knows I've earned it. And God bless. But I was good in chemistry, if that matters. Well, yeah, it didn't matter to him. In math, I was good in chemistry if that matters well yeah didn't matter to him math was ok math so what is is anyone giving you a reason why this why this makes a difference because i don't i don't quite see it i've never understood well it's basic statistical observation oh i know i know yeah cars that are 4.9 don't finish as high as cars that are 5 point out yeah the heavier cars with there is no question about that now in our every creaking

and concerned parent uh... concerned about winning their own david eleven you know what i thought that it's not a little second-grade and i think it's not a little second-grade and i think it's not about your voice and i think it's on time would but and that's the attitude yeah okay we want to know

it better to equally distribute the weight front and back enter it which is what some of the flyers from boy like tell you put it all in the back, which is my vote. Well, let's see. First of all, this is not the first time I've thought about this.

Oh, you were in the damn journey. I made many a Pinewood car. Yeah, and what'd you do? Lost every time. Ha ha. Because I refused to- Then what am I talking to you guys? I refused to believe that the weight

made that much of a difference. So your recommendation would be contour versus weight? I would go for reduce the weight, just have four wheels, no body. Okay so when my son comes in dead last, I explain to him that it was those morons. Well you do want to reduce what we call the feather effect. Ah, the feather effect. Yeah, if your car is too light, then it will be affected adversely. But it's like dropping a feather and a golf ball.

It'll be blown all over the track. It'll be blown all over the place. That might be the only reason for adding the weight. And that is the only reason. Yeah. To reduce that effect, to reduce the adverse effects of the aerodynamic and just Galileo refer to this Oh, does 801 call it the feather effect? No, but I do Good luck Kathy and look it we want a full written report

with photos of the photo finish Thanks counting on it and God knows you're gonna need a lot of luck With photos. With photos of the photo finish. Thanks, Captain. We're counting on it. And God knows you're going to need a lot of luck, and I'm giving it to you right now. And if we can think of any other way for you to cheat, we'll call you. Amen. See ya. The spirit of America is alive and well.

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