I'm posting one puzzle, riddle, math, or statistical problem a day. Try to answer each one and post your answers in the comments section. I'll post the answer the next day. Even if you have the same answer as someone else, feel free to put up your answer, too!
Thursday, April 15, 2010
Time Warp
A man had six working clocks in his house and he always checked them before going to bed. One morning he woke up and the three upstairs clocks said 8:15 while the 3 downstairs clocks said 7:30. What happened?
Hmm...I'm assuming something happened with the fuses on one of the floors, probably downstairs. Or the breaker, or something that caused the power to go out on one floor for around 45 minutes. This assumes, of course, that they were electric clocks.
Tough one - if his house came near to a black hole, then time would slow - so perhaps a black hole has appeared under his house, and so by the time he got up time had moved forward 45 minutes slower downstairs?
The power had gone out during the night. The three clocks with battery backup in them (the ones upstairs) were still on time.
Or Kira could be right and it's just a 'one floor' problem because of the circuit breakers in the house. But then, somebody would have had to go flip the switch.
"he always checked them before going to bed"... meaning he only corrected the upstairs clocks (where the bed is) and left the downstairs clocks as is (probably has for a long time allowing them to get off-time)
there is less gravity the higher up you go, and therefore less curvature of time and space. the clocks at the bottom were lagged down by all the warping of time, while the clocks at the top were not as affected and ticked faster than the downstairs clocks
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Hmm...I'm assuming something happened with the fuses on one of the floors, probably downstairs. Or the breaker, or something that caused the power to go out on one floor for around 45 minutes. This assumes, of course, that they were electric clocks.
ReplyDeleteTough one - if his house came near to a black hole, then time would slow - so perhaps a black hole has appeared under his house, and so by the time he got up time had moved forward 45 minutes slower downstairs?
ReplyDeleteI was going to throw out a time zone solution, but seeing as one set of clocks is xx:15 and the other is xx:30...
ReplyDeletehe spends 45 minutes climbing up the stairs to check the clocks, perhaps?
ReplyDeleteA really weird theif came to his house that just goes in, changes all your downstairs clocks, then leaves came and visited him? :D
ReplyDeleteThe power had gone out during the night. The three clocks with battery backup in them (the ones upstairs) were still on time.
ReplyDeleteOr Kira could be right and it's just a 'one floor' problem because of the circuit breakers in the house. But then, somebody would have had to go flip the switch.
"he always checked them before going to bed"... meaning he only corrected the upstairs clocks (where the bed is) and left the downstairs clocks as is (probably has for a long time allowing them to get off-time)
ReplyDeletenobody said the downstairs clocks were *working*. The breaker flipped off at 7:30 and is still off.
ReplyDeletethere is less gravity the higher up you go, and therefore less curvature of time and space. the clocks at the bottom were lagged down by all the warping of time, while the clocks at the top were not as affected and ticked faster than the downstairs clocks
ReplyDeletethere are different time zones
ReplyDeleteso if there was a house like this _ is empty rooom and @ is a room with alarm clock
upstair@@@___________________________andforeverabout
downstair ________________________________1000kms _______@@@
a very wide house