Pondering Two Inventions

Mar 21, 2005

RAY: This week's puzzler is historical in nature, and it doesn't need any additional obfuscation or declarification. It has built-in obfuscation. Here it is:

I'm thinking of two inventions from long ago. One of them has thousands of moving parts. The other has one part, and it doesn't move.

They both do the same thing.

TOM: Are they still around?

RAY: Of course. Are they still in widespread use? Of course not.

What am I thinking of?


RAY: What they're measuring is the passage of time. One is the sandglass, which has thousands of grains of sand. The other is the sundial, which has no moving parts.

Both of them measure the passage of time.

Do we have a winner?

TOM: The winner this week is Melissa Armstrong from Fleetwood, Pennsylvania. And for having her answer selected at random, from among all the correct answers that we got, Melissa is going to get a 26 dollar gift certificate to the Shameless Commerce Division at cartalk.com, with which she can pick up our brand-new, two-color Car Talk baseball jersey, which has three-quarter length sleeves. It's perfect for keeping those arms warm while you're wasting away on the bench!

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