Sunday, January 24, 2010

Cape Cod Puzzle

Summer on Cape Cod. Strong Wellfleet tides with water rising 3 inches per hour in the late afternoon. A fishing boat is unloading the Wellfleet oysters at the long deck. Rope ladder with 10 rungs is hanging over the side of the boat. The distance between each rung is 12 inches. The lowest rung is touching the water. How soon will the tide cover the third rung from the top of the rope ladder? (this puzzle was Massachusetts-ized from the book of B. Kordemsky)

Enter your answer on our Family Puzzle Marathon page. Solve three and get a prize!

3 comments:

mdm said...

Hummm.....If the ladder is attached to the boat, then the boat and ladder will both rise.....

So, the 3rd rung from the top wouldn't be touching water unless the boat were sinking....

Maria said...

Couldn't fool you, even with all those numbers!
mdm is very sharp, even on a lazy Sunday morning

expect a very complex, practically unsolvable, puzzle tomorrow :)

Anonymous said...

The boat will rise with the water. The water will never cover the third rung.

Post a Comment

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.