There is a certain kind of rope which takes exactly one hour to burn from end to end. The rope is not uniform,

Question

There is a certain kind of rope which takes exactly one hour to burn from end to end. The rope is not uniform, not symmetric - thicknesses throughout its length vary randomly. No two such ropes will be identical.
You have two such ropes. How will you measure 45 minutes?

Answer 1

With my wristwatch. Duh. Man has had better chronometers than ropes for thousands of years... say are you that guy from the GEICO commerical? The one that keeps getting so upset? Trying to prove what a great invention fire was?

Seriously, I don't know if you gave enough information clearly enough to answer this so you might want to edit - are you saying the two ropes don't burn uniformly but in the end they will both burn for exactly one hour so you cannot, like, fold one in half to get 30 minutes and the other in quarters to get 15? And if no two such ropes are identical, HOW COME BOTH ROPES TAKE EXACTLY: ONE HOUR TO BURN FROM END TO END. Sounds identical, in that respect at lesat, to me.

Seriously I suggest you just award me the points and withdraw your question because, under the rules as you've explained them, the only way to tell how long a rope will take to burn is to burn it while timing it with something else and then you can no longer use it in that way because it's burned and GONE! Think about it! If NO TWO ROPES are the same, and the ropes are non-uniform, non-symmetric, and do NOT burn at a given length per time then there's no way to predict how long it will take to burn a given rope without actually doing it & timing it!

Gee, what a dumb question!

By the way, what is producing the light my avitar's picture was taken by? I'll give you a hint - it's not a watch based on burning ropes! LOL

Answer 2

nylon rope not sure lol

Answer 3

confusing factor. look into onto yahoo or google. that can assist!