Quote:
Originally posted by sprocket
Look at the riddle again. It simply says do not assume the ropes are a certain length or they burn at the same speed. It simply says you have 2 ropes that could be any length that will burn up completely in 60 seconds. In order for this riddle to really work you have to assume each rope burns at a constant speed the whole length of the rope, so lighting the ropes at both ends would result in a 30 second burnination. The longer of the ropes will obviously burninate more material than the shorter one but in the same amount of time.
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With all due respect, I suggest
you look at the riddle again...
Quote:
Originally posted by arael
you have two pieces of ropes. The given is that they both burn for 60 seconds each. The rate/length is not given and therefore should not be assumed.
the question is: if you need to time 30 seconds, how do you burn the ropes so that you know it's thirty seconds with the given information. and as i mentioned before, the rate/lenght is not to be assumed so don't answer "cut the rope in half" because you have no idea if it burns at a constant rate.
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It doesn't "simply" say anything! The quote "as i mentioned before, the rate/lenght is not to be assumed so don't answer 'cut the rope in half' because you have no idea if it burns at a constant rate," is quite telling. It's clear that
arael is
not simply saying that the two ropes burn at different rates or he wouldn't have ruled out the "cut the rope in half" solution...