Brain Teaser #4
Here's one for you to figure out:
You have the misfortune to own an unreliable clock.
This one loses exactly 24 minutes every hour.
It is now showing 3:00am and you know that is was correct at midnight, when you set it.
The clock stopped 1 hour ago, what is the correct time now?
I will post the correct answer in a few days.
Good luck!
I get 4:20 AM, but I'm glad I don't have to figure net proceeds with this approach.
I want to say 5:00 AM but there might be a trick that I have to think about.
Oops ... sis AM if the clock stopped an hour ago. I need to read the whole problem next time!
The answer is quite obvious and I can't believe that Fernando was the only one to figure it out. It's TIME TO BUY A NEW CLOCK!
Let me pour another glass of coffee, and I'll think about it. Nah, it's too early in the morning.
My guess is 5:20 am, but my head is starting to hurt from all the math! lol
THE ANSWER:
6:00am: since the clock is losing 24 minutes every hour, for every real hour that has passed, the clock will only show 36 minutes. Since the clock shows 3:00am, we know that 180 clock minutes have passed. This therefore equals 300 real minutes and hence 5 hours. The clock stopped 1 hour ago and the time must now be 6.00am.
Ralph,
I now realized that although I read "losing 24 minutes every hour", my mind incorrectly interpreted it as "losing 24 minutes every hour and 24 minutes".
Nice brain teaser. I hope to do much better with the next one.
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