The GeekDad Puzzle of the Week is a new weekly (we hope) feature of the blog. If you have an answer, send it to us an email. First accurate answer submitted by Thursday is the "winner," and there are no prizes greater that the admiration of your peers. If all goes well, though, we may wrangle some small prizes for successful puzzle solutions in the future, so stay tuned, and have fun. And now, onto the first puzzle!
Your son (or daughter if you will) has been caught overplaying his Wii past the allowable time. Your punishment, designed to build character as well as future gaming skills (because, you know, you’re not capricious) has him put in an empty, windowless room devoid of any and all technology save for two, old-fashioned hourglass-type egg timers that precisely measure seven and four minutes respectively. You tell him that he is not allowed to come out and must stay in the room for exactly nine minutes. If he comes out over- or under-time, he is denied the Wii for the rest of the month. Your son is not wearing a watch or other piece of timekeeping device primitive or modern, but he is a clever and determined gamer and emerges on the nose in nine minutes. How did he do it?
