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Sailing Puzzle


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You will have to forgive this, but you can't sail around the world on the equator.

What about the anchor whenever you have drop anchor would the distance of the anchor to the ocean botton count as distance as well?

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A Sailing Ship sails around the world around the eqauator. Which part of the sip travels the furthest distance and why?

If the equator was used as the sailing route then did the ship sail on land as well?

does the ship have wheels as well?

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Why does the question need to specify the equator? Unless it's sailing upside down, the same logic holds regardless of the latitude.

Of course, the logic fails to hold in the same way if you count the small movements of the various components of the ship.

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:huh: You can't travel around the world on the equator on a ship.......unless you wanted to carry it over a lot of land. :mellow:

if there are wheels on the bottom then you can - sort of like a duck: floats on water and walks on land

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This question should have been asked with a plane...then the rear wing would be the answer since it is the tallest part of the plane...and you wouldn't have to hear whining about a ship not being able to travel on land...and haven't you all heard of those tour buses that look like boats and can go in the water...lol

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:huh: You can't travel around the world on the equator on a ship.......unless you wanted to carry it over a lot of land. :mellow:

it doesnt really matter if there is land, its just a puzzle, no-one really did it.

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Well, taking the riddle on its own I definitely thought it was a trick question because you can't sail around the world exactly on the equator. But after reading the responses I realize the intent was for the highest part of the ship, though I do think the sails flapping back and forth is an interesting answer.

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I have to ask: Why do people feel the need to take apart puzzles on semantics? :huh:

It's true you can't sail along the Equator... 'so what!'... was that the first thing thought about when reading the puzzle?

My first thought was: the flag at the end of the high mast! [i'd make it a Pirate flag at this point... but it might be another semantic picked on!]

This question should have been asked with a plane...then the rear wing would be the answer since it is the tallest part of the plane...and you wouldn't have to hear whining about a ship not being able to travel on land...and haven't you all heard of those tour buses that look like boats and can go in the water...lol

Given the sail flapping back and forth answer (which I would never have thought of simply because there was never any references to changing winds in the problem), I'd have to say that in alcacace's plane the answer should be the flight attendant... running up and down the ailes throughout the whole flight serving refreshments (or worse yet: my wife if she should be a passenger at one end of the plane... always running to the bathroom at the back of the plane and back :P )

Oh well... Semantics do stimulates discussions - I'll grant you that much! :D

Have a great day everyone!

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well if your counting the tip of the mast to be the furthest circle around the world, then if you dropped anchor it should count against you for distance being that it is making the circle smaller.

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I have to ask: Why do people feel the need to take apart puzzles on semantics? :huh:

It's true you can't sail along the Equator... 'so what!'... was that the first thing thought about when reading the puzzle?

My first thought was: the flag at the end of the high mast! [i'd make it a Pirate flag at this point... but it might be another semantic picked on!]

Given the sail flapping back and forth answer (which I would never have thought of simply because there was never any references to changing winds in the problem), I'd have to say that in alcacace's plane the answer should be the flight attendant... running up and down the ailes throughout the whole flight serving refreshments (or worse yet: my wife if she should be a passenger at one end of the plane... always running to the bathroom at the back of the plane and back :P )

Oh well... Semantics do stimulates discussions - I'll grant you that much! :D

Have a great day everyone!

I'll tell you why people (myself in this case) thought it may have been a trick question. Probably 1/10 of the riddles I've read/heard are trick questions... What is spelled incorrectly in this sentence?, What is the man's last name?, How many days was Moses on the Arc?, etc...

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Itachi-San,

I'll tell you why people (myself in this case) thought it may have been a trick question. Probably 1/10 of the riddles I've read/heard are trick questions... What is spelled incorrectly in this sentence?, What is the man's last name?, How many days was Moses on the Arc?, etc...

I appreciate your comment, and I agree with you... In fact, I approved of your comment made earlier:

Well, taking the riddle on its own I definitely thought it was a trick question because you can't sail around the world exactly on the equator. But after reading the responses I realize the intent was for the highest part of the ship, though I do think the sails flapping back and forth is an interesting answer.

You stated your observations, and acknowleged your understanding of the riddle.

I have absolutely no issue with that. What I am curious about, are those that must question the basis of a riddle when they know a detail offered therein to be clearly technically impossible, yet are not allowing themselves to accept or imagine this transgression on faith. We all know the equator cannot be sailed through without 'portage' sort of speak. Do riddle descriptions need to be so explicit for everyone? I would hope not.

It is more the comments like that of Fysh that I am curious about:

You will have to forgive this, but you can't sail around the world on the equator.

He challenged the riddle, but he left no indication that he understood the intent of the riddle. Makes you feel sorry for him... doesn't it?

I've only come accross a handful of riddles from this forum, thanks to the google widget... and thus far, not many riddles did not suffer from such interventions. I guess it is easy for some to take a riddle apart when the solution escapes them. If they could only resist the urge to do so... Oh well.

Thank you for your reply.

Onward with the challenge of other brain teaser riddles...

FuzzySCSI

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This is not thought out well. There are several continents that are located on the equator, therefore making it highly impossible to sail around the world following the equator.

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I posed this question in June last year and got very little response, so I was quite suprised when I returned to it to see that it had sparked quite a debate.

To respond to some of the replies, particularly on the semanics, I did not say that the 'world' was our world, this is a fictious world called 'Riddleglobe' I think it may be wise to assume the majority of the riddles posted on this site are on such a fictious would as this.

The wind in the sail is an interesting answer, but impossible to measure, but if we were going down this route, I would have thought a second hand on a clock would have travelled the furest, as this has the lateral movement around the plant as well as the circular movement of the icrementing time, (this is of course, asumming that the clock is in full working order (got to ensure clarity, to keep all the pedants happy)).

SO here is a revised version of the riddle, please feell free to pick as many holes in it as possible.

An old fashioned 3 mast sailing ship wants to circum-navigate the planet Earth. It will stick as close to the equator as possible and navigate round any land mass, returning in the shortest route possible to the equator. Which part of the ship travels the furthest distance, in miles, ignoring any moving parts on any of the ship or any of the crew. The distance should be calculated in concentric circles using the centre of the Earth as it's datum.

I don't know about you but this kind of takes the 'fun' of the riddle, and turn it more in to a math problem, the original intention of the riddle was to try to encourage people to use a little applied logic, and not suposed to be an absolute.

As I've said before some people take their fun way too seriously!

Anyway that's my spleen vemted. :P

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You will have to forgive this, but you can't sail around the world on the equator.

it says AROUND the equator, not ON the equator. And yes, it is the tallest part of the ship.

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A Sailing Ship sails around the world around the eqauator. Which part of the sip travels the furthest distance and why?

does the sip have a sensitive gag reflex? :lol:

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