A careless philosopher forgot to wind up his clock. He now has no way of attaining the time as he doesn’t prefer to keep up with technology and prefers to live with little influence from the outside world. He has no radio, no TV, no telephone, no internet, or any other means of getting the time besides walking to his friend's house to get it from him.
He sets out to do this and walks to his friend's house. It is a straight desert road, and the travel is only a few miles. He stays there for the night and walks home the following morning. He is then able to set his clock to the correct time.
The philosopher did not bring anything to this friend’s house in order to keep track of time in any way, nor did he have his friend time him.
How was he able to estimate the time that passed on his walk home from his friend’s in order to set the clock ?
Answer will be provided next Thursday evening after 21:00.
Teaser Of The Day No. 283
Advertisement
Re: Teaser Of The Day No. 283
ANSWER
Before the philosopher leaves, he winds his clock and sets it to a random time, say 9:00, for example. This is not the correct time, but it will help him estimate when he returns by tracking the amount of time his entire trip takes.
As soon as he arrives, the philosopher looks at his friend’s clock, which says 7:15. He stays overnight and then looks at the clock one more time before leaving. At that time it was 10:15, 15 hours later.
When he returns home, his clock now says 12:40. The philosopher can now use this to subtracting the time it was when he left. He knows he has been gone for 15 hours and 40 minutes, meaning he spent 40 minutes walking and it takes him 20 minutes to walk one way.
He will now know to set the time to 20 minutes after what time it was when he left his friend’s house, which is 10:35.
Before the philosopher leaves, he winds his clock and sets it to a random time, say 9:00, for example. This is not the correct time, but it will help him estimate when he returns by tracking the amount of time his entire trip takes.
As soon as he arrives, the philosopher looks at his friend’s clock, which says 7:15. He stays overnight and then looks at the clock one more time before leaving. At that time it was 10:15, 15 hours later.
When he returns home, his clock now says 12:40. The philosopher can now use this to subtracting the time it was when he left. He knows he has been gone for 15 hours and 40 minutes, meaning he spent 40 minutes walking and it takes him 20 minutes to walk one way.
He will now know to set the time to 20 minutes after what time it was when he left his friend’s house, which is 10:35.
¡SHARE TOPIC!