Burning Ropes

So you got two ropes, both having different lenghts.
If you light either rope, in exactly 1 hour the rope will be fully burned/consumed.
The ropes are not the same length or thickness.
Also the rate at which the rope burns isn't uniform. (It may burn faster then slower then faster), so if half the rope is half burned that doesn't mean that half an hour has gone by.

Using the two ropes how do you measure that 45 minutes worth of time has gone by?

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3 Comments

  1. Burn one rope (a) from both ends.
    Burn the other (b) from only one end.

    When (a) is burnt out then you know that half an hour has elapsed.

    At this point (b) also has half an hour to burn.

    So burn what is left of (b) from it’s unlit end an when that rope has burnt out you know it’s 15 minutes.

    30+15=45!

    A jalebi for the first correct answer?
    Assuming I am correct that is!

    Posted March 4, 2006 at 4:25 pm | Permalink
  2. hahaha, nice….

    I’d toss you a ludoo, but I ate the last one, how about a muffin?

    Posted March 6, 2006 at 4:19 am | Permalink
  3. Tim hortons?

    Posted March 6, 2006 at 6:15 am | Permalink