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Pole in lake


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There is a pole in a lake. One half of the pole is in the ground, another one third is covered by water and eight feet is out of the water. What is the total length of the pole in feet?

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There is a pole in a lake. One half of the pole is in the ground, another one third is covered by water and eight feet is out of the water. What is the total length of the pole in feet?

about 36 feet

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12ft.

8 feet are in the ground, those 8 feet are also out of (not in) the water, because they are in the ground. So if the other 1/3 is in the water, then the total length is 12ft.

But if one is to say that the 1/2 in the ground accounts as part of the 8ft not in the water, one could argue that the ground under the lake would be wet as well (because it would be) so the 1/3 of it in the water would account for the half in the ground as well and it would spin this off into la~la land. :huh:

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Oops, I missed the part about 1/2 being in the ground. Let me clarify

12ft

6ft (1/2) in the ground (it may be wet but it is not in the water)

4ft (1/3) in the water.

2ft is the rest of the poll sticking out from the surface. (totaling 8ft not in the water)

-12ft total

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I don't get why everybody is doing fractions and percentages... It's really simple math.

First you start out with the 8 feet you know of, then you multiply it by 3 (because 1/3 is in the water so you do the inverse) to get 24.

After that you just multiply it by 2 because of the 1/2 in the ground to get 48.

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half the pole is in the ground 1/2 =3/6

1/3 the pole is in the water 1/3=2/6

8ft of the pole is above the water

1=6/6

6/6 - 3/6 - 2/6 = 1/6

8ft = 1/6 of the pole

8ft x 6 = 48ft

the pole is 48ft long

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im new and this one caught my eye for some weird reason....

real quick explanation:

turn the fractions into percentages

1/2 = 50%

1/3 = 33%

50% + 33% = 83%

17% of the pole is above water

8 / .17 = 47.058823529411764705882352941176

just depends on what value you are gonna round to

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I agree with the 12ft. answer.

The wording is strange and makes you think why not just say '8 feet are in the air' if in the air is what you meant? Really, only because 'in the air' is not what is meant. What IS meant is that 8ft is not in the water, exactly as stated. If not in the water, where can it be? In the ground, or in the air. So we know:

3/6 = in ground

2/6 = in air

4/6 = 8 feet

So the entire pole = 12 feet.

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"WORD" "PROBLEMS" require skill sets as both grammartician and mathematician. [with a little [un]common sense thrown in.] :)

The answer is 48feet. If you have a different answer, check one of the above skill sets. In the spirit of this website, should we rewrite the OP's to suit obscure interpretations? The "and" preceeding the 8 feet connects this phrase to the "another" following the comma, therefore the 8 feet is not part of the original 50% in the ground. [so common sense and grammar win out over obscure interpretation.] This one is a word problem, not so much a trick question which would beg for effort to look for hidden clues. ;)

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"WORD" "PROBLEMS" require skill sets as both grammartician and mathematician. [with a little [un]common sense thrown in.] :)

The answer is 48feet. If you have a different answer, check one of the above skill sets. In the spirit of this website, should we rewrite the OP's to suit obscure interpretations? The "and" preceeding the 8 feet connects this phrase to the "another" following the comma, therefore the 8 feet is not part of the original 50% in the ground. [so common sense and grammar win out over obscure interpretation.] This one is a word problem, not so much a trick question which would beg for effort to look for hidden clues. ;)

Chuck Norris swam out into the water and removed the pole, and with his mighty strength he roundhouse kicked the pole into outerspace. Hence removing the issue of how much is sticking where.

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im probally wrong and im okay with that but my guess is 16 feet because 8 feet of pole is out of water and half of the pole is in the ground which technically is not under water so the lenghth of pole in the ground is 8 feet doubled to equal the whole pole is 16. maybe. i think i should have done something with the 1/3 being in the water so my calculations are incomplete oh well

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There is a pole in a lake. One half of the pole is in the ground, another one third is covered by water and eight feet is out of the water. What is the total length of the pole in feet?

Spoiler for Just a guess from me on how to solve it.:

1/3+1/2=8

1/3=2/6

1/2=3/6

2/6+3/6=5/6=8

so I think the answer will

be whatever 1/3 of 8 is

plus 8

I got 32.242424242424242424242424242424

Anyhow that's what I got but that was just a guess from what I remember but I do remember you having to change the bottom numbers to work with fractions that were different like the 1/2 and 1/3 by finding a closest number that they both went into.

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Definitely a 48 ft pole.

With the length of the pole as "P" then... P divided by 2 for the portion in the ground + P divided by 3 for the portion in the water + 8 for the final bit out of the water. This then looks something like P = P/2 + P/3 + 8 then solve the equation, you get 48.

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I believe that the pole is only 12 feet long.

HELLO...

1/2 is under the ground, which LEAVES 1/2 of the pole.

1/3 is under the water but above the ground. This means that 2/3 of the remaining half is taken away.

This leaves 1/3 of that half.

1/3 of one half is 1/6. This is the portion of the pole that is both above ground AND above water.

If 1/6 of the pole is 8 feet long, so the whole pole must be 48 feet long.

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Are people allowing for the inverse universe trapezoid destabilisation of axis of N,S (North/South pole). There are some sub aquations to be considered for the water and root canal work at the spring equinox according to the Gregorian calendar. Further, the ground is subject to tremor and hippy hippy shake siZeMick activity and given that a piece of wood may change it's volume by 6.8% growth in water and 7.7% shrinkage in natural regular drying conditions not to mention the decay that has taken place since the original OP.

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Are people allowing for the inverse universe trapezoid destabilisation of axis of N,S (North/South pole). There are some sub aquations to be considered for the water and root canal work at the spring equinox according to the Gregorian calendar. Further, the ground is subject to tremor and hippy hippy shake siZeMick activity and given that a piece of wood may change it's volume by 6.8% growth in water and 7.7% shrinkage in natural regular drying conditions not to mention the decay that has taken place since the original OP.

This is very true, originally I had found something similar to this, but unfortunately I only speak in Mosaic when i talk about problems like this, so I used a handy transizzlator I found on the web to help me out:

You miznust not forget tizzy tha pole is also mizzle of a composite wood tizzy wizzle wet experiences expansion different thiznen what would be seen in a normal piece of dowel or maple. This can be accounted fo` in tha equation: z0mg * 48 f337 10Ng = 48 . Keep'n it gangsta dogg. Simple algebra will prove T-H-to-tha-izzat this, n only this is tha right answa . Snoop dogg is in this howse. Everyone else needs ta show respect n understand this. Out.

Edit: If mah gurrl PepsiGal247 uses that big of font in the I-to-the-interizznet, she must yell all the time in the real lyfe fo shizzle.

Edited by Sky
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