Request of me twenty, receive of me twenty.
Request of me sixty, your behest will be fulfilled.
Request of me eighty, you'll be given the same;
but ask for one hundred, and you will get only sixty.
What am I?
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Are you
minutes?
Because
20 minutes is twenty minutes, 60 minutes is sixty minutes, 80 minutes is eighty minutes (or 1:20 hours/minutes), but 1:00 is one hour or only sixty minutes.
More specifically,
numbers entered into a microwave (that means seconds/minutes instead of minutes/hours, but the idea is the same).
answered Nov 20 at 7:54
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$\begingroup$ Precisely! Well, nearly - the intended response was "microwave", but provided the correlation existing between the two, both answers are entirely valid. $\endgroup$ – interoperability Nov 20 at 8:07
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$\begingroup$ I never used a microwave, so I wouldn't know that part :-) But 100 -> 60 seemed like too much of a coincidence to not be connected to this answer. $\endgroup$ – Rand al'Thor Nov 20 at 8:09
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$\begingroup$ Do most microwaves actually allow you to "request eighty"? $\endgroup$ – Gareth McCaughan♦ Nov 20 at 9:50
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$\begingroup$ @GarethMcCaughan Yes. In seconds, anyway. And with the specified behavior, all of which applies exactly as described. I expected that to be the answer in fact (and OP’s comment seems to confirm that I was on target). $\endgroup$ – Rubio♦ Nov 20 at 13:35
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$\begingroup$ Interesting. I'm pretty sure mine doesn't. $\endgroup$ – Gareth McCaughan♦ Nov 20 at 13:35
