RAY: The question is, how many bouts have to be fought in order to determine one winner? One winner. So, you start off with 247 people.

TOM: Yeah.

RAY: Right?

TOM: Yeah.

RAY: Divide that group in half, right? Half of them are gonna wrestle the other half. Then you're gonna lose half of those people.

TOM: Right.

RAY: And that half is gonna wrestle, right?

TOM: Yeah, I got it. I got it.

RAY: You could go and do all this, but there's a simpler way to figure it out.

TOM: There is?

RAY: Well, of course.

TOM: Add up the numbers four, two and seven, which comes out to be 13. You divide it by two, which is almost seven, and the answer's seven.

RAY: Seven what? Matches! We already had 123 matches to begin with!

TOM: Oh, you call those matches?

RAY: Yeah, we don't need no stinking matches!

TOM: Oh, the answer's not seven? What is the answer?

RAY: Well, according to John LaTorre, who sent this to us, he claims that Albert Einstein used this as an example of elegant reasoning. That is, reaching a conclusion in the fewest number of steps in his math lectures.

TOM: Really?

RAY: From time to time.

TOM: He gave math lectures?

RAY: He knew a little bit about the topic.

TOM: He did?

RAY: And here's the answer. Since you can't have any ties, every bout must have a winner and a loser. You with me?

TOM: I'm with you.

RAY: And since the thing is a single-elimination, everyone will lose once, and only once, except for whom?

TOM: One guy!

RAY: One guy.

TOM: The winner.

RAY: Therefore, how many losers are we gonna have?

TOM: Two hundred and forty-six.

RAY: How many matches are we gonna have?

TOM: I don't know.

RAY: Two hundred and forty-six.

TOM: Really?

RAY: Yeah. Do the math, as they say. Do we have a winner?

TOM: Yeah.

RAY: What if you started off with seven people?

TOM: Yeah, if I had seven people...

RAY: And when you divide them, you get two, two, two and one...

TOM: The answer would be six.

RAY: And one guy left over.

TOM: Yeah.

RAY: Right? All right, so each pair of two fights, right? And you've got one, one, one.

TOM: That's three matches.

RAY: Yeah, two, two and two. So there are three matches and one guy just hanging out.

TOM: One guy hanging out.

RAY: All right? All right. After those three matches conclude...

TOM: Three winners and the guy hanging out.

RAY: All right, so how many more matches?

TOM: That's four people. Two more matches.

RAY: Right, that's five. And then what happens?

TOM: Out of that?

RAY: You got two people.

TOM: I got two people.

RAY: You're gonna have one match, and you're gonna determine a winner.

TOM: A winner. So the answer's six.

RAY: There you go!

TOM: God, that's fun. Who was the little guy sitting in the bar? I know who it was! It was Jack Samuel from Cave Creek, Arizona!

RAY: Exactly!

TOM: And for having his answer selected at random, from among the thousands of correct answers and incorrect answers...

[ Car Talk Puzzler ]