[Guest]

Can anybody help me out of this puzzle ,I read it in one book

The puzzle says that

:A squirrel climbing up a cylindrical post spirally, making the circuit in four feet.

supposing the top of the post is sixteen feet high and three feet in circumference how many feet does it travels to the top? :huh:

[benjer3]

If I'm reading it correctly, the squirrel is going up and around the post, going completely around the post every 4 feet it travels. To find the vertical distance it travels each circuit, imagine the surface of the post flattened out and use the Pythagorean Theorem with 3 feet as the horizontal leg (the circumference), y as the vertical, and 4 feet as the hypotenuse:

***3² + y² = 4²

***y² = 4² - 3²

***y = 7

***y = 7^1/2 (about 2.65) feet

We know that the squirrel travels 16 vertical feet, or 16 / 7^1/2 (about 6.05) cycles. Since the squirrel travels four feet per cycle, it will travel a total of 4 * (16 / 7^1/2) = 64 / 7^1/2 feet, or about 24.19 feet.

Edited March 17, 2011 by benjer3

[Guest]

Here's an idea:

Reading Benjer3's solution, I think it's even simpler than he said. I read the puzzle as saying that the squirrel makes a circuit of the post every four vertical feet. So using benjer3's triangle, the bottom would be 3 ft, the side would be 4 ft, and the hypotenuse would be 5 ft (since the 3-4-5 triangle is a well-known right triangle in geometry).

Since the post is 16 ft high, that means that it would make the circuit 4 times, each circuit being 5 ft in length. So the total would be 4x5 ft = 20 ft.

[Guest]

yeah I also got the correct answer and it is 20 ft

Sorry benjer3 you ran ahead

and sorry for delay