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My husband and I set out for a day trip towards a tourist town 20km away from our location. We only have enough fuel to reach the town, but my husband assured me that we will easily drive back to our location in our car without refueling. How is this possible?

Note this is not a trick question and works in real life. They will come back in their own car without any external assistance.

Dmitry Kamenetsky
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6 Answers6

7

Another possibility:

On the way back someone had to push the car.

Depending on what kind of husband he is, he volunteered to push the car or he expected his wife to do it.

Laurel
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Florian F
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7

Two options come to my mind...

The car is a hybrid, and their fuel (i.e. gas) will get them 20 km, and electric the way back

or

They're not driving their own car to town, but rather picking it up from there. It's not stated that they leave from their location in their car ("our car")

robbie crockett
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6

You are driving

uphill to a ski resort or something and you can just roll back downhill.

caPNCApn
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    yes you got it! I came up with this scenario during my latest tourist trip :) – Dmitry Kamenetsky Jun 20 '22 at 05:17
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    Works in real life, eh? Humph-harrumph!. ;) – M Oehm Jun 20 '22 at 05:52
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    Good point. I would still keep the engine running just in case. It shouldn't use much fuel. – Dmitry Kamenetsky Jun 20 '22 at 05:58
  • Well, I don't know. It seems what you tried to save on fuel will be spent for a hotel for the night – and you'll have to buy the fuel the next day. (This solution might work in fantasy world, where to path to the destination is a steady slope without curves or crossroads, but claiming that this works in real life is a bit much.) – M Oehm Jun 20 '22 at 06:07
  • Well it works in theory, but probably a bad idea in practice :P – Dmitry Kamenetsky Jun 20 '22 at 06:11
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    Where in the world is a road leading 100km steadily upwards? – BmyGuest Jun 20 '22 at 07:33
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    @BmyGuest That sounds like a question for [travel.se] SE :-) – Rand al'Thor Jun 20 '22 at 07:58
  • it only has to be a gradual rise. Anyway please don't give away the answer! – Dmitry Kamenetsky Jun 20 '22 at 09:49
  • I changed it to 20km :p – Dmitry Kamenetsky Jun 20 '22 at 12:47
  • Fwiw, steering and breaking is much harder without engine assistance (you're then ultimately trying to stop 1 ton of metal travelling downhill at 30mph+ with just one of your legs), so "easily" drive back is not entirely the case :P – Luke Briggs Jun 20 '22 at 13:27
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    @LukeBriggs depends on the car. I have one that has neither power steering nor power braking (by design, it is rater old) and it is still drivable. One can as well engage a high gear and use any of these things in the car, powered by the wheels and not by the engine - modern cars cut off all of the fuel when in engine braking mode. Of course, the car has to be manual. – fraxinus Jun 20 '22 at 14:02
  • ... and one more problem: the fuel economy when climbing uphill is very, very different from the level-road one. You may not get to the intended point in the first place. – fraxinus Jun 20 '22 at 14:05
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    @fraxinus the hydraulic ratios in a modern car are set on the assumption of engine assistance, i.e. a vehicle which is designed to have assistance is much harder to steer/ brake when the assistance fails, vs. an older car which is designed around not having assistance anyway. The pedals have more space to move and the levering takes up more space in the engine bay than on a modern vehicle. – Luke Briggs Jun 20 '22 at 14:11
  • @LukeBriggs agree. But the OP didn't say the make and model. – fraxinus Jun 20 '22 at 14:23
  • @fraxinus very true, old car it is! lol – Luke Briggs Jun 20 '22 at 14:27
  • PSA: if driving downhill lots, shift into a lower gear so you're not riding your brakes the whole way down. @fraxinus was doing this on the Blue Ridge Parkway in an automatic Honda Accord, and the MPG readout went to 99.9 on downhill stretches, so not just manual cars that cut off fuel when engine braking. – Nick T Jun 20 '22 at 14:52
5

Another possibility

Go by car upto 10km then park somewhere and go to town by other source (Taxi, Lift or public transport).

Come back to same place (where car parked) by other source then drive own car :)

Another possibility

They can buy new/used car from town and come back with new own car.

Niranj Patel
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2

They can

receive external assistance on the way there, but then drive on their own power home. You specify that they will come back home without external assistance but perhaps they get towed there or take a ferry

Luke Miller
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2

Possibly the "abusing the word 'car'" answer hinted at by the OP:

Their "car" is actually part of a train. Many parts of a passenger train are referred to as "cars", e.g. the sleeper car, the diner car, etc. If the train has low ridership, it's possible they even have a whole car to themselves, so they could then come back "in their own car".

The amount of fuel they have with them is then irrelevant, since they're not using any fuel at all - the train is (unless it's electric, in which case the power-plant that supplies its power is).

They could also just be referring to having to bring some food along for the trip. Maybe they don't have enough food for the return leg of the trip, but humans can easily withstand a 20km trip without a meal.

Darrel Hoffman
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