When solving problems, engineers and computer programmers must sometimes think outside the box

This week’s Micro Softy examines such a case. In the following problem, someone without any technical background was able to figure out why a lawnmower’s mows-per-gallon rate had decreased.

Charlie Glispastavich lives in the city of Jupiter, Florida.   Most of the houses there are small, with relatively small yards. Charlie takes pride in maintaining his yard, including mowing, trimming, watering, and fertilizing. He mows his lawn once a week on Saturday. He also takes pride maintaining his gardening tools. His lawnmower is taken yearly to the local shop, where it is cleaned, tuned, and otherwise renewed.

Charlie bought his house in 2000. He kept a log of his gardening expenses and it showed that in 2000 he was able to mow his lawn six times before refilling the mower with gasoline. In 2026, he was able to mow his lawn only five times before he needed to refill it. Charlie was concerned. He took the mower to the shop, and the mechanic gave it a carefullook over. It was good as new, he said, “There’s been no appreciable wear and tear on the unit, and there’s no reason that it should perform worse now than it did in 2000.”

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Charlie went home puzzled. He shared the news with his wife, a hairdresser, who immediately identified the reason he was spending more money on gasoline.

To clinch this week’s Micro Softy, what did Charlie’s wife notice that he and his mechanic didn’t?

Solution to Micro Softy 89:    Double Negatives Are a No-No

Unraveling the meaning of a sentence containing multiple negatives can be difficult. For example, “That’s not unmeaningless” simplifies to “That’s without meaning.” The “not” and the “un” negatives cancel each other.  Unraveling multiple negatives in a sentence was last week’s Micro Softy challenge.

Here’s a simplification for each of the 17 multiple negative statements given in last week’s Micro Softy:

Image Credit: TungCheung - Adobe Stock

1. “I’m not unwilling to say that this isn’t entirely unreasonable.”
       → I’m willing to say it’s fairly reasonable.
2. “It’s not impossible that he didn’t misunderstand the instructions.”
       → He may have understood the instructions.
3. “I’m not unconvinced that this isn’t a bad idea.”
       →I am somewhat convinced this is not a bad idea.  
4. “It’s not unlikely that they didn’t fail to notice the problem.”
       → They probably noticed the problem.
5. “I cannot say that I don’t disagree with your conclusion.”
       → I am not prepared to say that I agree; I may disagree..
6. “It wouldn’t be inaccurate to say this is not insignificant.”
       → This is significant.
7. “I’m not sure we can’t avoid not making changes.”
       → I ’m unsure whether we can avoid making changes.
8.  “It’s not implausible that he isn’t innocent.”
       → He may not be innocent.
9. “I wouldn’t deny that this isn’t without serious consequences.”
       → This can have serious consequences.
10. “I’m not unwilling to believe that he didn’t fail to do nothing.”
        → I’m open to believing he did nothing.
11. “It’s not impossible that we can’t not reconsider this.”
        → It may be that we must reconsider this.
12. “I wouldn’t say it’s not unlikely that she isn’t mistaken.”
        → She may be mistaken.
13. “I cannot deny that I am not unconcerned about this.”
        → I am concerned about this.
14. “It’s not unreasonable to think they didn’t not understand.”
        → It is reasonable to think they understood.
15. “I’m not convinced that this can’t fail to cause problems.”
        → I’m not sure this will cause problems.
16. “I wouldn’t go so far as to say he isn’t not responsible.”
        → I’m not prepared to say he is responsible.
17. “It wouldn’t be wrong to say this isn’t not important.”
        → This is important.

Unraveling all of the negatives to come to a resolution, I may have made some mistakes. If I have, send me a breakdown of the reason why.

The Monday Micro Softy is a weekly feature of Mind Matters News. Here are the links to all the puzzles and answers to date:

Monday Micro Softy 89:    Double Negatives Are a No-No. Actually, they do have their uses  —  for example, if politicians are trying to correctly state views while making them hard to understand. To solve last week’s puzzle: you are told how many heads there are so start by flipping that number of coins.

Image generated with ChatGPT

Monday Micro Softy 88:  Flipping Gold Coins. Computer programmers must be good at math. The solution to this week’s Micro Softy uses math — but you don’t need to know the math to impress your friends. The answer to Micro Softy 87 depends on understanding which number a given sequence of the code represents.

Monday Microsofty 87: Are you as good a detective as you think? Here’s a test from the world of codebreaking To solve last week’s puzzle, look up the definition of “calorie.” Are we using the word to mean the same thing? You can find puzzles 77 through 86 here as well.

Monday Micro Softy 76: The Smoking Gun explains a computer scientist or engineer, a law enforcement officer often relies on abductive reasoning to crack a case, so with this in mind, you will have to crack last week’s puzzle. You can find puzzles 55 through 75 here as well.

Monday Micro Softy 55: “It happens every spring.” Baseball, that is. Here’s a puzzle that takes in baseball’s summer. To solve last week’s puzzle, you don’t need to know the distance. Check the problem again for the number you do need to know. You can find puzzles 51 through 54 here as well.

Monday Micro Softy 50: Cutting through the cornbread. How did Yuri Senior cut the cornbread into eight identical portions using only three straight cuts? You can guess the answer to Microsofty 49 if you try the test question yourself at home, using a small mirror. Links to Microsofties 46 through 49 are here as well.

Image Credit: BUDDHA - Adobe Stock

Monday Micro Softy 45: Can Tony beat the fast-food curfew? An early curfew on fast food service motivated a boy to exercise more vigorously. But how fast was he pedalling? To solve Micro Softy 44, recall that Tony doesn’t need to take the individual pills each day, only the prescribed amount of each. You will find links here to Micros Softies 41 through 44 as well.

Monday Micro Softy 40: The fate of a false prophet. He wasn’t actually fired for being a false prophet but for something that his prophecy unintentionally revealed. The solution to Micro Softy 39 lies in considering an alternative possible meaning of a word commonly used in sports. You will also find links to Micro Softies 30 through 39 and their answers here as well.

Monday Micro Softy 29: A funeral lament in four lines. The funeral director was puzzled by Dan’s description of his relationship to the deceased but there was no question that his grief was sincere Here, you will also find links to Microsofties 22 through 29.

Monday Micro Softy 21: Finding More of the Deadly Fentanyl Pills. Here, you will also find links to Microsofties 11 through 20 as well.

Monday Micro Softy 11: What Happened to That Other Dollar? Here you will find links to the first ten Micro Softies. Have fun!