If a cat in a room can kill a rat in 60 seconds, how long would it take for the cat to kill 60,000 rats?

Answer 1

A cat faced with 60,000 rats wouldn’t be able to kill them all. In fact any cat faced with 60,000 rats should have the sense to run, before the rats kill the cat. Did you really think the answer would be 60,000 minutes?

Answer 2

60,000 rats would end up killing the cat, but the question doesn't say the cat has to take them all on at once, a human could put the rats in the room one at a time.

The question doesn't say the cat has to eat them, only kill them.

60,000 minutes = 1000 hours = about 41.7 days

The cat could eat, say, every 20th rat to keep it going but it is gonna need to stop for milk and sleep.
Give it say, 6 hours sleep and 1 hour rest and milk break per day.
Thats an extra 287 hours over the 41 days.

So to answer the question:1,287 hours = *** 53.625 days ***
Making the assumption the cat is very fit and doesn't start to slow down after a while.

:-)

Answer 3

Ooh, I like numbers. When in doubt, multiply everything:

60 whatevers x 60,000 rats = 3,600,000 rats

The answer is three million, six hundred thousand...rats.
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Come on, guys, it's theoretical. Assuming the rats can't kill the cat, how long would it take? Remeber the word "If"--it's a pretty big concept in philosophy. (And also assume that the cat would have both the hunger and the stamina to do the job.) It's suspension of belief, like in the movies. It's like my question a while back: "How long would it take me to compile a billion points on Yahoo!® Answers at the rate of 10 points a day?" (Bless their hearts, a few people actually calculated the thousands of years it would take me, rounded to the nearest day....) Are you going to say, "You would never make it because you'll get tired and will die before you reach 10,000,000"? No, right? It's understood that it's a theoretical question.

Think theoretically, folks, theoretically...
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But it's too late anyway; my brilliant answer of 3,600,000 rats takes the cake...and the 10 points.
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Ok, for the real answer:

60 seconds x 60,000 rats = 3,600,000 seconds, or 60,000 minutes, or 41.667 days (41 days, 16 hours).

It's a robot cat!!!

Answer 4

if the cat can kill a rat in 60 seconds on the average, it doesn't change even if we're talking of 60,000 rats: the cat still kills the rat in 60 seconds.

but if your question is cummulative, then the cat needs 60,000 minutes to kill all the rats or 1000 hours or 41.7 days or 5.95 weeks or 1.49 months.

Answer 5

really the rats will kill the cat, but if this were true, about 16 minutes and 40 seconds (1000 seconds & rounded)

Answer 6

to kill 1 rat - 1 minute
to kill 60,000 rats- 60,000 minutes

Answer 7

1 rat = 60 seconds
60,000 rats = T * 60 seconds
= 1,000 seconds

Answer 8

The information is incomplete. One needs to know the gestation time and birth rate of rats to make a valid calculation.

It's also quite likely that the rats would kill the cat.

Here is a link that will help you calculate how long it would take based on the birthrate of rats:
http://www.ugrad.math.ubc.ca/coursedoc/math101/notes/moreApps/cats.html

Answer 9

The cat will be eaten in 5 seconds

Answer 10

the cat will join the rat! or the cat will be a rat! and if it was one at a time...maybe...1000 rats will be eaten. cats cannot be eaten by a rat, even they are 60, 000.

Answer 11

Poor cat - thinking he's about to have a massive meal, when all the time, it's the rats that will have a feed.