Brain Teasers
Jail Message
You are locked in a jail cell with no windows, and you need to tap out a message on the wall for the man in the other cell next to you. The problem is that you have to do it at exactly 9:15 PM, when the guard outside is switched, so your noise won't be noticed. You can't hear the switching of the guards through your walls, and you have no clock.
There is a faucet with water dripping very consistently from it in the corner, but you don't know if it is dripping at 30 or 40 or however many drops per minute, and that wouldn't give you the time in any case. You can just make out the chiming of a church bell, but it chimes just once at the top of each hour, so you can't tell the time from that. You can feel the wall facing west start to cool after the sun sets, but you don't know what time the sun is setting, and this isn't very precise in any case. Your dinner is always passed into your cell between 6:15 and 6:45. How do you determine when it is exactly 9:15 PM?
There is a faucet with water dripping very consistently from it in the corner, but you don't know if it is dripping at 30 or 40 or however many drops per minute, and that wouldn't give you the time in any case. You can just make out the chiming of a church bell, but it chimes just once at the top of each hour, so you can't tell the time from that. You can feel the wall facing west start to cool after the sun sets, but you don't know what time the sun is setting, and this isn't very precise in any case. Your dinner is always passed into your cell between 6:15 and 6:45. How do you determine when it is exactly 9:15 PM?
Answer
After dinner arrives, you listen for the church bell. Since dinner comes between 6:15 and 6:45, the next chiming has to be at 7:00 PM. When you hear it, you start to count the drips from the faucet until you hear the chime again at 8:00 PM. Divide the number of drips by four, and you'll have the number of drips that fall in fifteen minutes (Or you can divide by sixty to get the drops per minute, and then multiply this by fifteen). When the bell chimes again at 9:00, you start counting drips until you reach the specified number. It is now 9:15 PM, and time to tap out your message.Hide Answer Show Answer
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Comments
Well never having been in jail I had to read your teaser several times. Not inferring that you have been But after reading it through several times I figured out the answer. Good job. Made me work for it.
Nice Teaser
Really hard math
Really hard math
lol leaffan4life that karma thing happened to you again LOL who keeps blacklisting u?
btw nice teaser i feel sorry for you evrytime u get ur karma up some1 blacklists u
I didn't get it, but now I have 50 teaser votes! Yaaaay me!
since some1 keeps blacklisting my actual account(leaffan4life) i cant post comments with it so I ll use this account to thank every1 for the comments they are leaving PS:thank you harry i see you sincerity in your comments lol
lol
i love that it is going on my favorites
Fairly easy teaser but very unique. I enjoyed this thoroughly!
I always love a good logic teaser, but this was most excellent due to its originality.
I always love a good logic teaser, but this was most excellent due to its originality.
On the subject of bad karma-- I never see bad comments from you. Your bad karma has made me quite curious. How does one earn bad karma other than making rude comments?
By the way- I have no problem with someone stating they don't care for a teaser or thinking it is too easy, etc. We shouldn't lie about liking a terrible teaser. The key is in wording it correctly without personal attacks on the author. For example, one might state that a teaser is poorly written without saying it was utterly stupid. One might say a teaser is too easy without saying it could have been written by a first grader.
Hmmm...
By the way- I have no problem with someone stating they don't care for a teaser or thinking it is too easy, etc. We shouldn't lie about liking a terrible teaser. The key is in wording it correctly without personal attacks on the author. For example, one might state that a teaser is poorly written without saying it was utterly stupid. One might say a teaser is too easy without saying it could have been written by a first grader.
Hmmm...
Very original! I'm always impressed when someone takes the time to think through something like this and create such an original teaser. Well done!
My mind boggles how clever you are to think up these Full marks from me... sorry to hear that somebody is treating you unfairly
Waterpelt - I would say that, with out having the water drops physically here, teh math was impossible, so, yeah, I gouess you could say it was really hard.
I liked the red herring about the west wall cooling.
But, overall - I thought it was a nice question. It is the kind of questions that are on the Practice of Engineering Examination.
I liked the red herring about the west wall cooling.
But, overall - I thought it was a nice question. It is the kind of questions that are on the Practice of Engineering Examination.
too hard! sorry!
Interesting scenario... However, there's a much easier way to figure out when it's 9:15.
Figuring out the hour was simple enough with the chimes ringing every hour. But, instead of having to count droplets of water for a WHOLE hour, why not wait until the third chime after dinner then just count the seconds until you reach 15 minutes? Counting droplets of water for an hour is so much more difficult than counting out 900 seconds.
Would this count as still getting the riddle wrong...?
Figuring out the hour was simple enough with the chimes ringing every hour. But, instead of having to count droplets of water for a WHOLE hour, why not wait until the third chime after dinner then just count the seconds until you reach 15 minutes? Counting droplets of water for an hour is so much more difficult than counting out 900 seconds.
Would this count as still getting the riddle wrong...?
very creative but it wouldn't work. Water droplets do not measure out to the same size with every drop and because of this the speed of the drops would vary. It would be much easier to count the hours from dinner to 9 and then the minutes(seconds) from there
ok
jin10doh, why don't you try counting out 15 minutes. See how hard it is to be accurate. Start a stop watch and set it face down and start your counting. After you THINK you've reach 15 mintues, look at the stop watch. I'll bet you'll be off by at least 2-3 minutes.
Very nice teaser.
loved it figured it out first go!! brilliant, i love teasers like this because you have to use math and creative thinking
haha that was cool
Nice One.
wow that's a cool one!
wow. very original and very cool
i got it on the first try, but i loved it!
very very very well done
i got it on the first try, but i loved it!
very very very well done
Really nice teaser, if a bit easy
it was alright
way too easy. You don't even have to count drips between 8 and 9, you could do any hour.
I'll keep this in mind if I'm ever in jail.
yes, you could count the drops any hour, the only thing is to keep track of the chimes after dinner
I thought that you could count how many drops after the bell chimes before dinner (at 6:15), then, after it's 90, then you could count how many times the water drops after that, the same amount of drops you counted before...
Um, a little easier than I like but great fun!
This was fun! Great teaser!
Anticipated a 'look at his watch' kind of answer. No reason to believe he doesn't have one.
Correction, I mean look at MY watch. Forgot I'm the prisoner.
Yes it says there's no clock, but last I heard, clock isn't a watch.
Yes it says there's no clock, but last I heard, clock isn't a watch.
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