50 replies to this topic

[hipowertech]

never, unless the boat is tethered to the floor of the harbor.

Peace

[PipingDesign]

Never. The ship will simply rise with the water and the ladder with ship.

[BlackFalconReil]

love this riddle... I showed it to my eighth grade class last year. Nobody got it. And I mean nobody

[DechWerks]

Assuming that the ship was tethered and wouldn't rise with the tide, the answer is still never because tides change roughly every 6 hrs anyway and all otherwise 'valid' solutions take longer :-D So, (still assuming the ship doesn't move with the tide) the answer would be something like when the hurricane (or Typhoon) hits.

[Linzd21]

Ships are bouyant. the ship will rise with the tide. anchors hold ships still.not down. did you ever hear of a ship sinking because a green sailor tried to drop anchor in water that their chain didn't reach the bottom??

[billcrane0371]

Never, unless the ship is sinking, it will rise with the tide, with the tave always being where it was at the beginning.

[cvassallo]

I think that saying #8 is third from the top is true. We're saying it's the 3rd rung from the top, not the 3rd rung from the top rung. Likewise, #3 would be the 3rd from the ground, but only the 2nd from the bottom rung, even though we agree it doesn't matter in this puzzle.

The Top is the Top Rung. So the third from the top is the 7th tave. The math is 8 hours. But that is not the correct solution as stated by many others.

[Freerefill]

It says the boat is anchored, but it doesn't say where or how. Some boats, when at dock, don't drop anchor. They use ropes to connect the boat to the dock, which would be floating in the water (or high enough to avoid a high tide), so even if 'anchored' to the dock, nothing would be holding the boat down. I know this is how it's usually done for small boats (canoes, etc, too small for a heavy anchor) and medium-sized boats (my ex-stepdad's 34' yacht), but neither of them could have a 6' vertical ladder, so I don't know if large boats like schooners or battleships drop anchor at dock. It seems to me that if the dock isn't going anywhere (it usually isn't) then neither is the boat if the boat is tied to it.

Just my two cents Great riddle, by the way. Almost got me thinking back to freshman physics, before I remembered sophomore physics

Edited by Freerefill, 06 February 2008 - 08:34 PM.

[Sharpshark]

LOL never. THe boat floats remeber

[minkus111]

Ok first of all you got me. And so the math I did is irrelevant, but since others worked it out too, I am confused as to how you got to the answer of 10 hours 40 minutes to reach the 8th stave. As I did the math, the ladder is 180 cm long and the distance between staves is 20 cm. 180 / 20 = 9 staves. So if we are trying to get the the third from the top our target stave would be number seven not number eight.

If the above math is correct then the target height is 120 cm (remeber the number 1 stave is at 0 cm not at 20 cm)

If the target height is 120 cm and the tide rises at 15 cm per hour then it would take eight hours to reach the number seven stave (120/15).

Just assume the tide rises and the boat doesn't is my math faulty?

it would still be the eight tave because it is 180/20 =9 but you forgot to add the extra tave at the water which would make it 10 taves total so the target tave would be the 8th tave, and thus, making the target height 140 cm which would then make the answer 9hours and 20 minutes: 140/15=9 1/3. but this is still wrong because the boat would rise with the water so the water would stay with the first tave

Edited by minkus111, 10 March 2008 - 10:19 PM.