Pole in lake

[Guest]

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?

[Prof. Templeton]

After following this thread for some time, the answer is obviously

There is a Polish guy in a lake. Half of him is stuck in the mud, one third of him is in the water and his feet are sticking out. That's two of the feet, the other six belong to the three divers trying to pull him out. So the answer is... SIX as in this guy is "six feet under" or a goner.

[Guest]

1/2 is in THE ground (3/6)

ANOTHER 1/3 is covered by water (2/6)

AND 8 ft is above THE water (1/6)

5/6 is covered by water

1/6 is above the water (8ft)

therefore 8ft plus 40ft equals the lenght of THE pole (not A pole which is 19.5ft or 5.5 yards)

The answer is 48 feet

Edited August 13, 2008 by mindset

[Guest]

Wouldn't any variation of 3+2+1 fulfill the requirements? Assuming, of course, that the 1/3 X under water is of the entire rod length.

[Mekal]

hey! i remember this! My very first post was here! good times... good times...

[Guest]

48 it is

[Guest]

Let's stop arguing and let TEX provide us the right solution.

All three answers :48", 24" and 12 could be correct depending on how you interpret this puzzle.

If the 1/3 submerged in water, is 1/3 of the whole pole then 48" is the right answer as most of you have posted here.

If the 1/3 submerged in water, is 1/3 of the remaining half then 24" is the right answer.

Also, if the part covered in ground represents the remaining 8" part not in water (air + ground), then 12" is the right answer

I agree, on all counts! I feel like the obvious answer is 48 ft., but the other solutions are intriguing (if questionable). What I want most, though, is to wring TEX's neck for posting that so long ago and never showing back up to provide what he meant to be the answer!! Someone track him down and drag him back here!

[Guest]

It depends on the interpretation of the problem.

If I were writing this problem, I would expect the answer 48'. I probably wouldn't give more than half credit for 24', since any reasonable interpretation of the problem as written, interpreting "another" as "an additional," suggests that the amount in water is 1/3 of the whole pole. But with the argument given that the 1/2 is no more in the water than the 1/6 in the air, I'd give full points for 12'. It's the reasoning that's important, you see.

If you were writing this problem with the expectation of an answer of 48' you wouldn't have written "out of the water" you would have stated "in the air" to follow with the 2 previous statements. Your implication that as a teacher you would only give only half credit for 24' bothers me. The question is worded poorly as can be seen in the previous 11 pages.

If I had written the question as is I would accept that my wording was ambiguous and realize that 48', 24', 16.5', 12' and 9.6' would all be correct answers with interpretation (as I had left assumptions in my question).

It's the reasoning that's important, you see.

PS...my favorite answer is 9.6'

Edited September 21, 2008 by Scratch11

[Guest]

god will you people use spoilers

[Guest]

I believe that poll belongs to me

[Guest]

Hello all

First post here

Obviously we can agree that there are multiple answers.

I had to post because the past 11 pages made me laugh.

Anyway, logically there are about 5 legitimate answers.

My personal opinion is 48, but I see the logic of 12, 24, 15.5 and even 9.6.

Thanks for making me laugh all.

And TEX, PLEASE, PLEASE come tell us what you meant with this!!!

Edited September 29, 2008 by Elessar

[Guest]

the answer is like this:

the total length is 6/6 = 72'

1/2 or 3/6 is in the ground

1/3 or 2/6 is in the water

3/6 + 2/6 = 5/6 - 6/6 = 1/6

So therefore 1/6 = 12' out of the water, the total length, so 6 x 12' = 72'

[bhramarraj]

Let the pole be P feet long. So the equation will be 1/2P+1/3P+8=P Solving the above P = 48 feet.

[NAPALM71]

THE ANSWER IS 24 FEET

[mmiguel]

**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!

Whenever fractions are used, there is an implicit "of the" following the ratio being discussed.

"One half of the pole is in the ground, another one third of the ______ is covered by water and eight feet is out of the water."

What makes more sense to go in the blank based on common English?

A.) pole

B.) portion of the pole which is not in the ground

Let's insert each and see which one looks more correct:

A.) "One half of the pole is in the ground, another one third of the pole is covered by water and eight feet is out of the water."

B.) "One half of the pole is in the ground, another one third of the portion of the pole which is not in the ground is covered by water and eight feet is out of the water."

In this case, the word "another" implies that they are talking about the same thing i.e. the whole pole.

If they changed the object to be something else, they wouldn't use the word "another" there.

[~andy~]

The answer is still 48

[dhvani]

On 7/2/2007 at 12:18 PM, Guest said:

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?

 

[dhvani]

Answer is 24 feet

Hope this Helps! 

36 minutes ago, dhvani said:

 

oops this is the wrong ans