Friday, 25 September 2015

mathematics - The barge ladder


You are the captain of a large barge and need to cross a canal in order to transport your barge from the sea to a lake above sea-level.


As you probably know, when you enter the lock, water is added in order to raise the water level until the intended above-sea level is reached.


As you know, this takes a long time.


Really bored, you start to do some math (as all bored people do):


Your barge is $9m\times3m$ long and $3m$ high, with $1m$ submerged in water.


A $1.75m$ long ladder is hanging at one side of the barge, and is used for climbing in the barge.


The lock is a $10m\times10m$ square and it's filled at a rate of $500$ liters per second.



How much time does the water take to reach the hanging ladder?



Answer




Infinity and beyond - the water will never reach the ladder.



Why?



Because your barge rises with the water level. Thus no matter how much the water rises the distance from the ladder to the water (the "height" of the ladder) will not change.



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