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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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48 Feet.

He's one big Pole.

There's a man walking to an Olympic village with a long stick under his arm. Security stops him and asks

'Are you a pole vaulter?'

The man replies ' Nine. I am German. But how did you know my name was Walter!'

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Surely it's 48 feet

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hmmmm.... methinks it's more than that.... Cos if 50% of pole is in the ground and 33% (one third) is in the water then only 17% is sticking out of the water. The eight feet represents 17% of the total length of the pole there fore the total length is 331 feet!

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hmmmm.... methinks it's more than that.... Cos if 50% of pole is in the ground and 33% (one third) is in the water then only 17% is sticking out of the water. The eight feet represents 17% of the total length of the pole there fore the total length is 331 feet!

I'm not sure what how you're performing your calculations, but using the percentage data, I was able to come up with 47 and a fraction.

How I [originally] calculated it:

x/2 + x/3 + 8 = x

x/2 + x/3 -x = -8

3x/6 + 2x/6 - 6x/6 = -8

-x/6 = -8

-x = -48

x = 48

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1/2 Is in the ground-

1/3 (of what is not in the ground) is under water

8 ft. is out of the water.

I------------I----|----|----I

1/2 in the ground

I------------I----|----|----I 2/3 = 8ft

...........................8ft

If 2/3 = 8ft then the other 1/3 = 4ft

I------------I----|----|----I

............................12'

12' doubled - as half of the pole is in the ground- is 24'

I------------I----|----|----I

...............24'

Right??

Edited by Emapher
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1/2 Is in the ground-

1/3 (of what is not in the ground) is under water

8 ft. is out of the water.

I------------I----|----|----I

1/2 in the ground

I------------I----|----|----I 2/3 = 8ft

...........................8ft

If 2/3 = 8ft then the other 1/3 = 4ft

I------------I----|----|----I

............................12'

12' doubled - as half of the pole is in the ground- is 24'

I------------I----|----|----I

...............24'

Right??

no,

1/3 (of what is not in the ground) is under water <--- that is your error. its 1/3 of the ENTIRE pole not just whats out of the ground.

{------------------------}[----------------]|--------| {ground} [water] |air| one - = 1ft

1/2 = 3/6

1/3 = 2/6

+________

5/6

meaning 1/6 = 8ft

8x6 = 48 ft.

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hmmmm.... methinks it's more than that.... Cos if 50% of pole is in the ground and 33% (one third) is in the water then only 17% is sticking out of the water. The eight feet represents 17% of the total length of the pole there fore the total length is 331 feet!

8 / 0.17 = 47+

8 / 331 = 0.024169 = 2.4% not 17%

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The answer is absolutely 48 feet.

1/2 + 1/3 = 5/6

1/6*x = 8; where x = length of the pole

x = 48

Nice puzzle. I haven't manually added a fraction in a long time!

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I believe that the pole is only 12 feet long.

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no,

1/3 (of what is not in the ground) is under water <--- that is your error. its 1/3 of the ENTIRE pole not just whats out of the ground.

{------------------------}[----------------]|--------| {ground} [water] |air| one - = 1ft

1/2 = 3/6

1/3 = 2/6

+________

5/6

meaning 1/6 = 8ft

8x6 = 48 ft.

**But what makes you assume that it is 1/3 of the entire pole? The problem states: "One half of the pole is in the ground, another one third is covered by water and eight feet is out of the water."

Another- would imply 'in addition to' or 'along with' So why would one assume that this reffering to a fraction of the entirety?

Please correct me if im wrong!

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I'm thinking 12' is correct also. That would leave 6' in the ground 4' in the water and 2' in the air.The 6' in the ground and the 2' in the air are both out of the water and 4' is 1/3 of the total 12' .

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As the problem states, 1/2 (or 3/6) of the pole is in the ground, another 1/3 (or 2/6) of the ENTIRE LENGTH is in the water, the remainder, being 1/6, is 8 feet. 8X6 = 48.

If you assumed that the 1/3 is considering only the part that is NOT in the ground you would receive a different answer, but the problem does not say that.

It is funny to watch you all argue over such a simple calculation. This isn't really much of a brain teaser so much as it is a word problem.

12 is not the answer: 1/2 of 12 is 6. How can a the part of the pole, which is 8 feet long, be LONGER than the remaining piece of pole (6ft)? Check your answers to make sure they make sense before answering....

I hope none of you are engineers, because in the real world you don't get to argue over a problem statement.

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I'm with Emapher on this one. the word "another" dictates that the 1/3 covered by water does not include the length of the pole in the ground. if.. if.. the original question had left out that word, then you would be correct. i.e. 1/2 is in the ground, 1/3 is under water.

but when it was worded like 1/2 is in the ground, another 1/3 is under water.. it takes on a different meaning.

The answer.. as worded in the original question, is 24 feet.

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you know you could just change the denominator of 1/2 and 1/3 to 3/6 and 2/6 which are equivlent fractions, then just find whats left which is 1/6 and then multiply be 8

hears an example

1/2=3/6

1/3=2/6

3/6-2/6= 1/6

1/6=8ft.

8*6=48ft

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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?

The answer is 24 feet. Don't worry about the half of the pole in the ground just yet. Of the half of the pole NOT in the ground, two thirds are out of the water, which is 8 feet, making the one third covered by water 4 feet. Four plus eight equals twelve. Therefore, the length of the pole NOT in the ground is 12 feet, and since half of the pole is in the ground, the length of the pole is 24 feet.

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The pole is 12'.

It states that 8' is out of the water which should include the half that's on the ground.

So if 4'(12'/3') is in the water the pole is 12' and for the 8' that's out of the water... half of 12' is on the ground so 6' and the remainder is 2'.

|\\\\\\\\\\\\| <- 12' total pole length

|\\\\--------| <- 4' the 3rd that's in the water

|------\\\\\\| <- 6' half of the 12' + |----\\------| <- 2' the remainder = |----\\\\\\\\| <- 8' that's out of the water

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1/2=3/6

+

1/3=2/6

5/6

6/6-5/6=1/6

1/6x=8

x=8(6)

x=48

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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?

it is 24

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3/6+2/6=5/6 8=1/6 6*8=

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What happened to all of you? why are you so confused with a primary school math problem

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you know you could just change the denominator of 1/2 and 1/3 to 3/6 and 2/6 which are equivlent fractions, then just find whats left which is 1/6 and then multiply be 8

hears an example

1/2=3/6

1/3=2/6

3/6-2/6= 1/6

1/6=8ft.

8*6=48ft

That's what I originally got as an answer, but I started thinking that maybe the under ground section of the pole would be considered out of water:

3/6 under ground (not in water)

2/6 in water

1/6 sticking out (not in water)

4/6 out of water

4/6 = 8ft

1/6= 2ft.

6/6=12ft.

Therefore, depending on how you take the wording of the puzzle, the pole is either 48, or 12 feet long.

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I believe that the pole is only 12 feet long.

I believe that your math is way off.

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Honestly if you can't get this one, you really shouldn't be posting on a logic puzzles board.

Find the lowest common denominator for 1/2 and 1/3. It's 6.

1/2 = 3/6

1/3 = 2/6

3/6 + 2/6 = 5/6

With 5/6 of the pole accounted for, the remaining 1/6 is 8 feet long.

1/6(y) = 8

1(y)=8x6

y=48

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If 1 half is in the ground, that means that only 1 half is left. Now 1/3 of that 1/2 is in the water and 8' is out. so, 2/3 is out of the water and 1/3 is in. 8 is 2/3 of the half. so....the 1/3 in the water is 4'. 4' plus 8' is 12'. 12' plus 12' is 24'.

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If 1 half is in the ground, that means that only 1 half is left. Now 1/3 of that 1/2 is in the water and 8' is out. so, 2/3 is out of the water and 1/3 is in. 8 is 2/3 of the half. so....the 1/3 in the water is 4'. 4' plus 8' is 12'. 12' plus 12' is 24'.

Not 1/3 of that 1/2, but 1/3 of the total

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