Practical Pat was asked to cut a 99 foot rope into three smaller, equal length ropes.
However, as usual, Pat couldn't find the measuring tape, so a guess took place!
When the tape was finally found (it was under a hat), Pat discovered that:
the second piece of rope was twice as long as the first piece, minus 35 feet the third piece of rope was half the length of the first, plus 15 feet
How long were each of the pieces of rope?
Answer
First = 34 feet.
Second = 33 feet.
Third = 32 feet.
Reasoning
This question can be solved using algebra. If we call the length of the first rope A, we have: Rope 1 = A Rope 2 = 2 x A − 35 Rope 3 = 0.5 x A + 15
The three ropes add to 99 feet: 99 = Rope 1 + Rope 2 + Rope 3 99 = A + (2 x A − 35) + (0.5 x A + 15) 99 = 3.5 x A − 20 119 = 3.5 x A 34 = A
We usually ask how much earth there is in a hole, which of course there is none!
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Puzzle 639
Can you find the country hidden in the following sentence:
A popular newspaper printed part of a page that pointed out that port officials use a pencil, not a pen, when they prepare paper updates to their port reports.
A popular newspaper printed part of a page that pointed out that port officials use a pencil, not a pen, when they prepare paPER Updates to their port reports.
