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Sunday, March 10, 2013

Puzzle: Time zones

Alice, who is in an Atlantic seaboard state (one of the states of the USA, that is) is talking on the phone to Bob, who is in a Pacific seaboard state (again, one of the states of the USA). “What time is it there?”, Alice says. Bob gives the correct time where he is. “Funny, it's the same time here” says Alice. How is that possible?

I originally saw this puzzle on The Volokh Conspiracy, where it was posted on March 3rd, 2005 by Eugene Volokh. The puzzle is attributed to Warren Usui. The links to show the hint and answer no longer work in the original post, so I am re-posting the puzzle here. I have made a few minor changes in typography to conform to Fourmilab's style guide.

Posted at March 10, 2013 16:30