For the engineers among us who understand that the obvious is not
always the solution and that the facts, no matter how implausible,
are still the facts ...
A complaint was received by the Pontiac Division of General Motors:
"This is the second time I have written you, and I don't blame you for
not answering me, because I kind of sounded crazy, but it is a fact
that we have tradition in our family of ice cream for dessert after
dinner each night. But the kind of ice cream varies so, every night,
after we've eaten, the whole family votes on which kind of ice cream
we should have and I drive down to to store to get it.
It's also a fact that I recently purchased a new Pontiac and since
then my trips to the store have created a problem. You see, every
time I buy vanilla ice cream, when I start back from the store my car
won't start. If I get any other kind of ice cream, the car starts
just fine. I want you to know I'm serious about this question, no
matter how silly it sounds: 'What is there about a Pontiac that makes
it not start when I get vanilla ice cream, and to start whenever I get
any other kind?'"
The Pontiac President was understandably skeptical about the letter,
but sent an engineer to check it out anyway. The latter was surprised
to be greeted by a successful, obviously well-educated man in a fine
neighborhood. He had arranged to meet the man just after dinner time,
so the two hopped into the car and drove to the ice cream store. It
was vanilla ice cream that night and sure enough, after they came back
to the car, it wouldn't start. The engineer returned for three more
nights. The first night, the man got chocolate. The car started.
The second night, he got strawberry. The car started. The third
night he ordered vanilla. The car failed to start.
Now the engineer, being a logical man, refused to believe that this
man's car was allergic to vanilla ice cream. He arranged, therefore,
to continue his visits for as long as it took to solve the problem.
And toward this end he began to take notes: he jotted down all sorts
of data, time of day, type of gas used, time to drive back and forth,
etc. In a short time, he had a clue: the man took less time to
buy vanilla than any other flavor. Why?
The answer was in the layout of the store. Vanilla, being the most
popular flavor, was in a separate case at the front of the store for
quick pickup. A the other flavors were kept in the back of the store
at a different counter where it took considerably longer to find the
flavor and get checked out. Now the question for the engineer was why
the car wouldn't start when it took less time. Once time became the
problem -- not the vanilla ice cream -- the engineer quickly came up
with the answer: va**** lock. It was happening every night, but the
extra time taken to get the other flavors allowed the engine cool down
sufficiently to start. When the man got vanilla, the engine was still
too hot for the va**** lock to dissipate.
Moral of the story: even insane-looking problems are sometimes real.
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