Editing 589: Designated Drivers
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==Explanation== | ==Explanation== | ||
| − | When a group of people go together to any kind of event where they expect to drink alcohol, and would like to drive to and from the event, it is usual to select one who has to be the '''{{w|designated driver}}'''. | + | When a group of people go together to any kind of event where they expect to drink alcohol, and would like to drive to and from the event, it is usual to select one who has to be the '''{{w|designated driver}}'''. This person will then stay sober during the event, and can thus safely drive the other people home afterwards disregarding how drunk the other people becomes. |
| − | However, as this comic points out, if it | + | However, as this comic points out, if it not a simple task of going from A to B and back, all together at the same time, then it becomes an complex problem that requires an intricate kind of strategy and logical thinking to solve. And may need more than one driver. |
| − | In this comic [[Cueball]] addresses his friends, regarding this problem right before they enter a bar. It seems they have already decided that one of the friends will be the designated driver. But then Cueball mentions that they will have to leave in two groups. And for some reason one of these groups will need at least two drivers (this is hard to explain - see below under [[#Number of drivers|number of drivers]].) So now they already need three designated drivers. Furthermore | + | In this comic [[Cueball]] addresses his friends, ([[Megan]] and two other Cueball-like guys), regarding this problem right before they enter a bar. It seems they have already decided that one of the friends (Tom) will be the designated driver. But then Cueball mentions that they will have to leave in two groups. And for some reason one of these groups will need at least two drivers (this is hard to explain - see below under [[#Number of drivers|number of drivers]].) So now they already need three designated drivers. Furthermore someone has to go and pick up Paul. (This could be one of the designated drivers though). And also two girls (Julia and Emily) have to leave earlier than the rest by 10:00. (That could then be be one of the two groups that Cueball mentions, and then one of these girls should drive). |
In the third panel the situation seems to be illustrated. Three people are drawn outside the bar with three lines going to the bar, so the number of lines leaving and entering each destination seems to represent a person each. Since the number of people leaving and entering each destination is the same, this makes it seem like the diagram is intended to be accurate. There are four people entering and exiting the bar and six people entering and exiting both the party and the dinner. The confusing part of the diagram is that there are only three people at the bar to begin with, not the four shown in the first panel. It also seems strange that someone will go back to the bar and especially that another goes back to the dinner from the party. It is thus not easy to make the diagram fit the description. See below for a possible take on [[#The chart|the chart]]. | In the third panel the situation seems to be illustrated. Three people are drawn outside the bar with three lines going to the bar, so the number of lines leaving and entering each destination seems to represent a person each. Since the number of people leaving and entering each destination is the same, this makes it seem like the diagram is intended to be accurate. There are four people entering and exiting the bar and six people entering and exiting both the party and the dinner. The confusing part of the diagram is that there are only three people at the bar to begin with, not the four shown in the first panel. It also seems strange that someone will go back to the bar and especially that another goes back to the dinner from the party. It is thus not easy to make the diagram fit the description. See below for a possible take on [[#The chart|the chart]]. | ||
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The enormous complexities of planning who {{w|car pool}}s with whom, from where to where, and when, make an excellent logic puzzle. And what is worse, anyone who has to drive needs to stay sober. So it is important to solve the puzzle before the drinking starts, or else there will be too few that can drive, or too many who never get to drink. | The enormous complexities of planning who {{w|car pool}}s with whom, from where to where, and when, make an excellent logic puzzle. And what is worse, anyone who has to drive needs to stay sober. So it is important to solve the puzzle before the drinking starts, or else there will be too few that can drive, or too many who never get to drink. | ||
| − | To make matters worse | + | To make matters worse the last Cueball-like guy complicates this already complicated {{w|logical puzzle}}, by involving the classic logic puzzle of the {{w|Wolf, goat and cabbage puzzle|wolf, goat and cabbage}}. In the last panel the guy is shown standing with a goat on a tether, saying he can't be in the car with the wolf. Cueball is then brought to swearing over this. (The goat puzzle was also the subject of [[1134: Logic Boat]]). This must mean that one of the people who has yet to arrive comes with a wolf. And this may go some way of explaining why there needs to be a [[#Number of drivers|number of drivers]]. But since it did not seem like Cueball was thinking about this fact when he mentioned this, that cannot be the explanation. |
The title text makes it clear why ordering a taxi is out of the question as it would take money out of the beer budget. Of course it also cost money to use your own car for gas etc. But when you already have a car, it is always cheaper to use that than pay for a taxi. | The title text makes it clear why ordering a taxi is out of the question as it would take money out of the beer budget. Of course it also cost money to use your own car for gas etc. But when you already have a car, it is always cheaper to use that than pay for a taxi. | ||
===The chart=== | ===The chart=== | ||
| − | + | Since the first panel must take place before any drinking takes place, to make the title of the comic make sense, then there is already missing one from the bar, since we know that there are four at the bar at the start of the comic. To make the diagram fit the fourth person should then be the one coming from the party. But he would thus come from there before anyone else arrived at the party. And then someone will have to leave directly from the bar without going to the dinner or party, since no one will come back later. And since Julia and Emily leave together, this cannot be either of them. That would also mean that only five leave the party since one of the leaving arrows was the fourth to get to the bar early. And there are six arriving, all of which must be assumed to arrive later yet. And since no one enters the party from outside, someone must have been at the party site from the start and would stay there afterwards. | |
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| − | + | All this will at first make very little sense, so in the end it does not seems likely that the diagram in any way can represent the situation precisely. Except if the party is thrown by one of the guys, and he starts and finishes there. Here below is a possible explanation that would explain all the information and the chart. It this was at all intended to be possible by [[Randall]] is not certain but it fits: | |
| − | *Cueball | + | |
| − | ** | + | *The three people outside the bar are the one represented on the diagram. |
| − | ** | + | **Two Cueball-like guys of which the last one is Tom, the designated driver, and Megan represents one of the girls mentioned later Emily or Julia. |
| − | * | + | **They arrive together to the bar. |
| − | ** | + | *Here they meet Cueball. |
| − | * | + | **It is Cueball who throws the party. So the party is at his place, and he has arrived at the bar from there. |
| − | * | + | **There is thus no arrow entering the party for him to begin with, as he lives there. |
| + | *There are now four at the bar. | ||
| + | **Later Cueball will take a route past his house (the party place) before going to the dinner. | ||
| + | **Two of the other three in the bar will go straight to the place of the dinner. | ||
| + | **The last in the bar is the one who has to go after Paul. He thus leaves the chart. | ||
| + | *The guy who picked up Paul will return together with him to the dinner as the two arrows coming in from the top. | ||
| + | *The second girl (apart from Megan) is the last long arrow coming in alone from the right. | ||
| + | *Now all six people are at the dinner. | ||
| + | **After the dinner one of these six people (a guy) will leave alone | ||
| + | **The other five including Cueball will continue to the party at his house. | ||
| + | *There are thus five at the party but only four of these leaves afterwards in two groups of two. | ||
| + | **Two of these are the girls that leaves already at 10:00 leaving only three guys in the house. | ||
| + | **When the two last leave Cueball will stay at home, thus explaining why only four leaves. | ||
===Number of drivers=== | ===Number of drivers=== | ||
| − | + | The chart offers no solution to the puzzle of why a single group would need more than one driver. As neither of the groups leaving the party is more than two people it would be hard to get more than two drivers. And hard to explain why there would be need for more than one. | |
| − | + | The only time more than two lines are following each other from one place is the three that arrive together at the bar and the five that move from dinner to party. And even five people can normally fit in one car. | |
| − | + | Of course when we begin to take into account that one of them has a goat and one of the others have a wolf, then there are suddenly eight living beings that needs transport. And this may explain the need for two cars. But still not the more than one driver for a single car. | |
==Transcript== | ==Transcript== | ||
| − | :[Cueball is addressing three people outside a bar | + | :[Cueball is addressing three people outside a bar (two Cueball-like guys and Megan).] |
:Cueball: Wait, who's driving? | :Cueball: Wait, who's driving? | ||
:First Cueball-like guy: Why? | :First Cueball-like guy: Why? | ||
