BGM, Is this what today's youth is learning in math class? "Well, that last part of the equation doesn't matter, we'll just chop it off." When you ask how long does it take a clock to strike a certain hour, you have to start at the beginning of the first gong and end at the end of the last gong. Otherwise, you aren't figuring out the entire length of time it takes for the clock to strike the hour in question. Besides, I did the exact same calculation a few posts above (the 3.33 seconds one). But, that only holds true if the length of a gong = the length of a pause. ------------------ DREAMer's Rocket Page
Ok DREAMer, here's a question for you. In horse racing, when they do a photo finish, do they see which horses whole body crosses the line first or which horses nose crosses first? I think the answer to the riddle depends on if you think a clock strikes "x" time at the beginning or end of "x" gong. If it's at the beginning then the answer is 4 seconds, if it's at the end of the gong, then you also need to know the gong/pause ratio in order to find the answer. -------------- [This message has been edited by Band Geek Mobster (edited April 23, 2001).]
What is this a rerun of the gong show? ------------------ Ceo of the Walt Williams and Lisa Malosky fan club. atheistalliance.org
Man, where do you buy your clocks? 4 gongs for 3 o'clock? ------------------ Yugo grills, Yugo mills, Check out the oil my Yugo spills...
I'm laughing as I type this, because I love this riddle. You're over-analyzing! So allow me to over-analyze with you and prove that the answer is 4 seconds. If I take a line and bi-sect it, I have 2 equal sub-segments. I don't ask "how wide was the line you used to bisect it?". If I take a division of time and bi-sect it, I should have 2 equal sub-segments. Gong Starts, pause, 2nd Gong Starts, stop clock 2 seconds. If you time from the beginning of a gong in the first interval, you MUST time from the beginning of the 2nd gong in the 2nd interval. Therefore, for the first interval : Gong starts, pause, stop clock right as the 2nd gong starts. That's interval 1. That's 2 seconds. Second gong starts, pause, stop clock right as the 3rd gong starts. That's interval 2. That's 2 seconds. It doesn't matter how long a pause is or how long a gong lasts, or the harmonic oscillation of the pendulum in the coocoo clock, or the use of Einstein-Lorentz transformations. lol! The fact that I had the first interval defined means that interval would be the same for all resulting intervals. As for your statement that some clocks have longer pauses and longer gongs, etc. That's irrelevant since, per-clock the gong and pause are the same length. For this clock the time between 2 successive gongs is 2 seconds and that implicitly defines the length of a gong and a pause. ------------------ Yugo grills, Yugo mills, Check out the oil my Yugo spills...
Dreamer, while I agreed with you through most of the thread, I changed my mind at the end. The gong takes absolutely zero time. If the gong took time, how do you differentiate between the long tone on the gong and the pause between gongs. In clocks that gong, usually additional gongs are struck as the previous ones still ring. So it isn't a question of gong+pause at all. It is: pause = 2 seconds so pause+pause = 4 seconds. The gong is defined as the instant on contact between bell and hammer. But, I still don't think the answer is 4 seconds. If you were relying on the sound of the clock to tell you what time it was, its answer would not be done until the next gong was not struck. You can't assume it's 2 after hearing two gongs; you have to know that it won't strike a 3rd gong. Therefore, 2 o'clock is actually: pause+pause = 2 seconds (that is, gong, pause, gong, pause (waiting for a 3rd gong that won't come), where gongs take 0 time). So each pause is 1 second. At 3 o'clock: pause+pause+pause (that is, gong, pause, gong, pause, gong pause (waiting for a 4th gong that won't come), where gongs take 0 time) So, 3 o'clock will indeed take 3 seconds. ------------------ RealGM Gafford Art Artisan Cakes
Juan Valdez is saying what I was trying to say all along. You are not taking a line and bisecting it. You are taking a line and tri-secting it. Everybody knows that there are three intervals between 0 (or 12 oclock) and 3 oclock. Since the gong itself takes no time but is rather part of the clock process (if the gong took time than there would be more than 60 seconds in an minute) that must mean the answer is 3 seconds. ------------------ Haha.. you fool! You fell victim to one of the classic blunders. The most famous is: Never get involved in a land war in Asia. Only slightly less well know is this: Never go in against a Sicilian when death is on the line! [This message has been edited by JayZ750 (edited April 23, 2001).]
Oh geez, this is exactly why this riddle was created. Because people overanalyze. Of course there's 3 sections from 12 to 3. But we're not counting sections from 12 to 3. The first gong signifies a starting point. We are only counting two intervals. The bisection that creates the 2 intervals is the 2nd gong. Here's yet another way of looking at it : Get 2 stopwatches. Wait for the first gong. Start the stopwatch when it happens. When the 2nd gong starts. Stop the first stopwatch and start the 2nd one. How long did first stopwatch measure? Two seconds, because that's what we're told. Wait for the 3rd gong. Stop the 2nd stopwatch. Gee, I wonder how long that took? Ya think the same amount of time it took to go from the first to the second? Why yes! Two more seconds! Ok, I'm out of this thread before people start using half-lifes of Uranium, the atomic clock, and cesium radiation wavelengths to justify their answers. ... damn you Smeg! ------------------ Yugo grills, Yugo mills, Check out the oil my Yugo spills... [This message has been edited by Dr of Dunk (edited April 23, 2001).]
Ha, I would like to see some crappy Jazz trollers come in here and argue in this debate! ------------------ Watch out for gay Limbo Dancers.
Raven, lol! Jay, good sig DoD, don't leave yet. You completely ignored the (ingenious) point I made. You can't stop counting at the second gong for two o'clock. You have to wait for the 3rd gong to not strike before you know that it is done striking. Otherwise, you'll always be saying it's two o'clock even when you get six more gongs after you made up your mind. This isn't overanalysis; you haven't analyzed it enough! ------------------ RealGM Gafford Art Artisan Cakes
DAMN YOU BEAN MAN!!!! Thou hath brought me back into this infested swamp of riddle-iculous debate. What do you mean you have to wait for the 3rd gong? What's the clock going to do? Sike you out?! lol I'm not seeing your logic at all. Here are the givens aka Da Assumptions : 1) The clock strikes 2 o'clock in 2 seconds. 2) The clock will strike 3 times for 3 o'clock. 3) Each interval between gongs is the same. 4) Each gong length is the same. I don't care if a cockroach crawls in between the clapper and the gong on the 3rd strike so it sounds like a "fwap" instead of a "gooonnngggg". It's the 3rd gong. All gongs will have the same length and all pauses between gongs will be of the same length. By the way, in my example above, I never stopped counting at the 2nd gong. I have two stopwatches. One was simultaneously started as the other was stopped. I only "stopped" the first stopwatch to hopefully better-explain the intervals. As for the statement "you have to wait for the 3rd gong to not strike for it to be 2 o'clock". That is an incorrect assumption. You have explicitly been given the "gong interval" as being 2 seconds. You have 2 such intervals. Besides, when's the last time you knew it was 3 o'clock, but had to wait for the 4th gong not to ring to make sure? Haha. What you're saying is some serious over-analysis! The answer is "4 seconds". I'm sick of you people. I'm taking my cuckoo and leaving to go buy an aquarium. ------------------ Yugo grills, Yugo mills, Check out the oil my Yugo spills...
I love that show and all of the others on the gameshow network. ------------------ ~John~ Help keep the obsessed thread alive post the reasons why you are an obsessed Rockets fan by clicking here
Without looking: either an hour and 2 seconds or 13 hours and 2 seconds.... or beyond. ------------------ Time is a great teacher-- only problem is it kills all its pupils. PowerbizOnline.com
gong! gong! (DoD, what time is it?) gong! gong! (What time did you say it was? Was it 2 or 4?) When was the last time I knew it was 3 o'clock but had to wait for the 4th gong to be sure? That's just the point. The reason the clock gongs one gong for every hour of the clock is that you can know the hour by hearing it. Why not just gong once at the top of each hour regardless of the hour it is? It's because you have to count the gongs to know which hour. Sure there are times when I know it is 3 o'clock and the gongs will just inform me that it is top of the hour. But, haven't you ever woke up and have no idea if it's 11 or 5? Haven't you ever suddenly become aware of the time and realized you've got 2 hours less than you thought you did? You don't always know the hour. So yes, you do have to wait for the next gong to not strike. The answer is 3 seconds. *** Btw, if it takes 2 seconds to strike 2 o'clock, how long does it take to strike 1 o'clock? ------------------ RealGM Gafford Art Artisan Cakes
Irrelevant based on the given conditions in the riddle. Yet again, irrelevant based upon the given conditions in the riddle. No one is asking you to tell time by the gongs in the clock; that's where you're going wrong. They are explicitly stating what I mentioned earlier in this thread. They gave you the time for one interval and there are 2 such intervals. That's it. No need to know who manufactured the clock or what planet the clock is on. lol. You're overlooking the givens and coming up with scenarios on your own. At that point, you've created your own riddle. All I can say is you're thinking way too hard. You are given the fact that it's 3 o'clock yet you ask "what time is it? how can you be sure?"; the riddle explicitly and implicitly tells me times. You've made this riddle more complex than it really is, but then, that's the nature of the riddle; it's an old one that sets out to prove we often exercise our reasoning and logic far more than need be and arrive at the wrong answer in the process. The only reason I got it was because it was a question presented to us in a differential equations class back at UH by our professor. Everyone and their mother tried using diff EQ (why we did, who knows) to solve the problem and failed. When he provided the solution, everyone nearly jumped him because it was so easy. Let's leave it at you think it's 3 seconds and I think it's 4 seconds. ------------------ Yugo grills, Yugo mills, Check out the oil my Yugo spills...
If you look at it from the clock's perspective then the answer is 4 seconds. Pretend you're a clock, it's 3 o'clock, you need to gong three times and pause twice, you don't care about pausing the 3rd time. Your job is done after the 3rd gong, not after the 3rd pause, so it only takes you 4 seconds to strike 3 o'clock. 3 seconds can also be right if you're using the perspective of the person listening to the clock to find out what time it is. I think 3 and 4 seconds are both correct answers depending on the perspective. IMO, I think "IT TAKES A CLOCK TWO SECONDS TO STRIKE 2 O'CLOCK." is using the perspective of the clock and not the person listening to the clock. So I think the answer is 4 seconds. I also think this riddle sucks! ------------------ To resist is to piss in the wind, Anyone who does will end up smelling, Knowing this why do I defy, Cuz my inner voice is yelling. [This message has been edited by Band Geek Mobster (edited April 24, 2001).]
Man, at least I know who not to ask "Hey, what time is it?". ------------------ Yugo grills, Yugo mills, Check out the oil my Yugo spills...
Ok, I'm pretending I'm a clock. I want to know how long I'll have to work before my job is done (with the resonating of my bell not counting as work). I need to wind up, strike, wind up, strike for 2 o'clock. W+S+W+S = 2 If S=0, then 2W = 2 and W = 1 second So, for 3 o'clock: W+S+W+S+W+S = 3W + 3(0) = 3W = 3 seconds. If you think in terms of the man listening, his work begins with the first strike but doesn't end until the last strike is not struck. If you think in terms of the clock running, its work begins not with the strike, but with the wind-up for the first strike. The extra work goes on the beginning instead of the end. I tell you, the answer is 3. As for the quality of the riddle, I think this is the best one I've ever heard. ------------------ RealGM Gafford Art Artisan Cakes
Man, I didn't think about the winding. Okay Juan, you've got me convinced, it takes 3 seconds for a clock to strike 3. Dr. Junk is wrong! ------------------ To resist is to piss in the wind, Anyone who does will end up smelling, Knowing this why do I defy, Cuz my inner voice is yelling.
