RAY: Hi, we're back. You're listening to Car Talk with us, Click and Clack, the Tappet Brothers, and we're here, of course, to talk about cars, car repair and, of course, the answer to last week's Puzzler.

TOM: Which, in the little interim, I actually remembered.

RAY: You did?

TOM: Yes.

RAY: Very good. Well, here it is. During World War II the common American foot soldier carried a rifle that used 30-caliber ammunition. Now, you may ask, What is a 30-caliber bullet? Well, I looked it up. I didn't really look it up; I had help. And it happens to be 7.62 millimeters. Now, when hostilities broke out between the United States and Japan, the Japanese hurriedly began to make rifles that would fire a slightly larger...that is, a 31-caliber bullet.

TOM: You would expect the French to be contrary like that, but not the Japanese. They probably had a different reason.

RAY: They did have a different reason.

TOM: I bet they did, man.

RAY: And the Puzzler question very simply is: Why did they do that? Of all the calibers out there, why did they make a 31-caliber rifle? Well, one part of it, I think, is pretty obvious. And that is, if they had to vacate a position and their ammunition were captured, it would be unusable to the Americans. What hap? Too big! It doesn't fit in the rifle!

TOM: That's right. It would stick.

RAY: But the other part of it isn't so obvious. If the reverse happened--that is, if we...if the Japanese captured our ammunition, the smaller-caliber bullet would fit in their rifles, and they would be able to use our bullets to fire on us.

TOM: Ohh! But their aim would be bad, right? Because if it's flopping around there in the barrel of a rifle...

RAY: Anything is preferable to throwing rocks.

TOM: Wow! Now that is a great Puzzler, and I know that we are going to get such a raft of mail, probably. It's just too simple.

RAY: You know, I can take this.

TOM: We're going to get mail from Hirohito himself saying, "Thirty-one-caliber--what are you talking about?"

RAY: "We had those first!"

TOM: "We never made...that's why you guys made the 30-calibers, you jerks!"

RAY: It may be true, but at any rate, for the purpose of the puzzle, it was good.

TOM: Whether it's true or not.

RAY: It made a good puzzle.

TOM: It's a great question.

RAY: Right. On the basis of the information you had...

TOM: Roll...rule on?? or not.

RAY: Right. Exactly. It doesn't matter.

TOM: Do we have a winner?

RAY: No.

TOM: I didn't think so.

TOM: We show no winner this week. We do; the winner is Marsh Williams from Ohio...Columbus. Marsh--now, is that a male or a female?

RAY: We don't know.

TOM: We don't know. But Marsh's answer was chosen from among all of the correct answers this week, and for that, Marsh will get a...

[ Car Talk Puzzler ]