RAY: This puzzler is from my Fahrenheit-Celsius
series. It's from Mike Mercer, and I didn't really
even have to obfuscate this at all! Here it is:

Charlie is heading off to work one fall morning, and
as he does every morning, he passes a billboard that
displays the current temperature in Fahrenheit in one
corner, and the temperature in Celsius in the other
corner.

He notices both temperatures, and thinks, 'It's a
pretty nice day for late fall.' But, as the day
progresses, a monstrous cold front hits town. On his
way home, Charlie passes the temperature billboard
again, and finds that the Fahrenheit temperature is
now 36 degrees colder than it was that morning. So,
when he drove in it was one temperature, and now it's
that temperature minus 36.

But, when he looks at the Celsius temperature he's
confused, because it reads exactly the same as it did
that morning. Charlie figures that the display must be
stuck, because it's certainly much colder on his ride
home.

In fact, it was not stuck. But, there was indeed
something wrong with the Celsius sign.

What was the problem and how cold was it?



------------------------------------

A) make the observation that the "-" sign is burned
out on the C side.

B) If my calculations (and recollection) are correct:

F=C*9/5 + 32

Let F be the original Fahrenheit temperature and C the
original Celcius temperatur

F= C * 9/5 + 32
and
F -36 = (-C) * 9/5 + 32

Solving for F and C
F = 50  (later 14)
C = 10  (later -10)