chicken "little" question
A chicken weighs ten pounds plus half of its weight. How much does it weight ?
Labels: mathemagic, out-of-the-box
posted by Rajesh Lal at
9:28 AM
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
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112 Comments:
20 pounds
This post has been removed by a blog administrator.
Will is right...20 lbs
lol what was that anonymous?? nice guy there... lol
wouldnt it be 10??
15 because half of ten is 5 there for 10+5=15
i say 15 also
10+1/2x=x
1/2x=x-10
x=2x-20
-x=-20
x=20
the weight is 20, and there's the math to show it.
it is 15pds
It weighs 10lbs - that is its weight and cannot be changed
so how do you find out the answer???
http://trickofmind.com/2006/10/answers-to-questions.html
10 plus half can't be 10 as half of 10 isn't 0.
Also, it can't be 15 because half of 15 is 7.5.
so 10+7.5 is not equal to 15. the question states 10 pounds plus half its weight (not half of 10 pounds).
sorry, but math wins this one.
15 pounds
look, the question has no answer
say the chicken weighed 10 pounds, so if it weighs 10 pounds plus half it's weight (10 pounds) so the chicken would weigh 15 pounds yes?
no. now that the chicken weighs 15 pounds, half of it's weight isn't 5 anymore, it's 7.5....and so on and so on
20 pounds works....
10 pounds plus half its' weight (10 pounds) is 20 pounds... it works....
I say its 15 because 10 + 5= 15 its like time and a half duh!
the answer is
infinite lbs
the chicken is holy
the answer addresses the title of the question also
"chicken little"
The chicken definately weighs 20 lbs. Yeah. Definately 20 lbs.
umm will... were did the -x come from?
It came from Algebra class
20 pounds
i agree with Will. it is 20 lbs. 1/2 its weight will therefore be 10 plus the 10 included in the question will give u 20. (and am a Math expert at tertiary level).
It's infinity. chicken "little" is meant to be ironic. half of a number plus ten can be anything.
Will, it would make more sense if you math was as such:
10+.5w=w
-Subtract .5 w from both sides.
10=.5w
-Divide by .5.
20=w
There you have it, it would seem the answer is 20, however I agree it's a bit fishy that the weight is 10 plus something, somewhat implying that the weight is absolutely 10. Not sure, it's bad wording.
The answer is
X+1/2X=X
It's nonsensical.
weight=mass*force
.5w=(10)(9.8)
weight = 49
15 lbs
Why is everyone trying to answer how much the CHICKEN weighs? The question asks, How much does IT weigh"t"?
What I wanna know is... what "IT" that the chicken is weighing? ...and how long are you gonna "wait" to find out?
Its 15 pounds. . .half of 10 is five and 10 + 5 is 15.
Will, that math problem you did was wrong because u used "x" twice to stand for two different numbers.
"10 + 1/2x = x" is what you said. in this case x = 10. but in the final answer u proved x = 20.
Perhaps you never took high school algebra, but you can use the variable more than once.
W = Weight
Weight = 10 + Half of the Weight.
Write half of the weight as .5W
So, Weight = 10 + .5W
Solve. You can't honestly say that the math is wrong because it isn't. ;) Don't argue with a math major. The method is sound, it's just determining whether we have the question fully understood.
I'm shocked that with the volume of in-depth explanations on this question that there are still people who stand by "15" as the answer.
Get it together, people. The answer is "infinity."
Scientists have long known that all chickens undergo a phenomenon wherein they have perpetually increasing mass within a finite volume. By saying "ten pounds," you're really only defining its rate of condensation.
oh lord....
OMG...It's 20 lbs...okay!!!
x = 10 + 1/2x
2(x) = 2(10 + 1/2x)
2x = 20 + x
2x - x = 20
x = 20
I'm multiplying by 2 in order to get whole numbers (instead of 1/2x we will have x)
gary... you seem to have a chicken confused with a blackhole... that's the only thing that I know of that science would argue that has near infinite mass in a finite space... otherwise.. dude, you worry me about your chickens...
I say it weighs 15 pounds
Im going with weight= mass x force because it makes perfect sense if it was 10 grams, but it isn't it is 10 POUNDS!!!!!! It couldn't be clearer.
well since you don't have the mass to work out weight = mass x force, that doesn't work. and for the life of me, I still can't believe people think it's 15 pounds...
7.5 LBS
15 ALL THE WAY
You people are retarded. If you think the chicken is 15lbs you are just dumb. if the chicken is 15 then 10 + 7.5 would make it 17.5. now you have to take the 10 + 1/2(17.5) and so on and so on. that is stupid since you can't reverse to the same number. It is totally 20 and if you don't get it, go to the website and find out what the answer is. if you know how to type in the web address.
You people are retarded. If you think the chicken is 15lbs you are just dumb. if the chicken is 15 then 10 + 7.5 would make it 17.5. now you have to take the 10 + 1/2(17.5) and so on and so on. that is stupid since you can't reverse to the same number. It is totally 20 and if you don't get it, go to the website and find out what the answer is. if you know how to type in the web address.
its amazing how much response this one question is getting...lets bring up a few issues....first of all will's math. someone was correct you CANNOT use the same variable to represent two different numbers in the SAME equation. sorry mr. math major but you are incorrect on that one...however again thats not to say the math was wrong. but you cant possibly answer this question with a number. It says a chicken weighs 10 lbs plus half of its weight. If you forget this whole looking into the question...its simple. what could the weight be that half of it would be 10...and like will said...it would have to be 20 lbs. nothing else to say...none of this the chicken is a blackhole nonsense or that it weighs 49 lbs....20 lbs. will's got it.
funny thing is... I didn't use x to represent 2 different numbers...
x equals the weight in both cases... sorry you can't see that sean and the others.
The answer is about 88.2 Neutons. 10 pounds is 4.5 kilograms, and since pounds and kilograms are a measure of mass not weight, you have to multiply the number by the value of gravity which I used as 9.8.
4.5 s 9.8 = 44.1 N
Then you simply use easy algebra and common sense to figure out the "weighs 44.1 N plus half it's weight", and you get 88.2 . My answer is the only one which makes sense since it fits into the whole " ten pounds plus half it's weight" and it is the only weight. Everyone else just used mass.
man... funny how a simple math question goes completely awry..
well if it weighs 10 pounda + half its weight...that would be 15 pounds that a chicke weighs!!!
duuhhhhhh!!!!!!!!
you know... I can't wait till the answer gets posted on here so people will just drop it...
15....? Do you people really want me to rip out my hair trying to explain why it is 20? It has been explained. Marcin.. a pound is a measure of weight. kilogram is mass. (mass in the English system is a slug)
the mass that gives you 10 lbs may be equivalent to 4.5 (too lazy to check)
I'm dont really get how its 20 but i think it's 15. Right???
for the last time, with the math to prove it above by a few people...
It is a 20 pound chicken...
10+1/2(20)=20
BECAUSE
10+10=20
don't know how in the world people can get something else... but I'm sorry that you can't listen to reason and math.
its impossible
its impossible--sorry, but math or reason doesnt really work
how is it impossible?
Once again, pounds is a measure of mass, not weight. You are all complete morons. The answer is 88.2 Neutons. Nuetons are a measure of weight.
Railroad crossing without any cars.
Can you spell it without any r's?
Yeah, IT!
Get it people?
The question asks how much does "it" weigh. It is a word, it weighs nothing.
Marcin, you must be a dope. You are like the many many high school children who read into a question and make it harder than it is. This question is a simple mind bender, and you are making it way too difficult. If this is supposed to be for anyone to figure out, then they were talking about weight in the sense that most people think of it.
When you step on a scale you see how many lbs you weigh, but stop! Oh my goodness, that's mass not weight!! So why doesn't everyone call it the mass?
Stop reading into it. You are only furthering to make yourself look pompous and arrogant.
In response to Sean, here is what I wrote:
Perhaps you never took high school algebra, but you can use the variable more than once.
W = Weight
Weight = 10 + Half of the Weight.
Write half of the weight as .5W
So, Weight = 10 + .5W
I am using the variable to represent the same thing! The weight! It's perfectly logical to use it twice!
It's like saying x is equal to 5 - a quarter of x.
x=5-.25x
:D Perhaps read before you type?
I never knew math that they used to teach in middle school was no longer being taught. For those of you who can't get the right answer, give it to your kids. If they are passing math even by a margin, they will get 20 as well.
ANSWER : 20 lbs
-------------------------
Chicken's WEIGHS 10 pounds and half of its WEIGHT
Chickens WEIGHT = half of its WEIGHT + half of its WEIGHT
Chickens WEIGHT = 10 + half of its WEIGHT
=> Half of Chicken weight = 10 pounds
GOT RIGHT
-------------------------
Will, Judy, Joe, Sean, etc...
Will how can you make fun of others when you yourself have the wrong answer?
uhm, I got it right.
Marcin do you read anything before posting?
Did you read what I wrote? You are technically right, but you gave a value of mass. Try converting 20 pounds in Neutons then you will be right.
Marcin... you worry me...
it's bad when the answer is given and you are saying it's wrong.. Rajesh posted what the correct answer is, and, **gasp** the answer is 20. And just to make you feel better, we are going by weight on Earth, which will make it 20, if you wanna go absolute for the entire universe, okay it's not pounds, but since the question was given in pounds, I just assumed it was based on Earth weight and thus 20 pounds. (barring elevation for the nuts like Marcin)
Seriously, Will. You need to take into consideration Moon chickens.
I hear they taste like aligator... ;-)
the chicken weighs 20 lbs. if it weighs 10 plus half of its weight, it is 20.
the easiest way is to do the problem backwards. we need 3 numbers in this puzzle, one number is 10, the other number is half the weight, and the third is the total weight.
we have already determined that the weight of the chicken has been divided in half. if the chicken does weigh 20 lbs, half that weight is 10 lbs. we now need a second half to create a whole chicken. the only other number we are given is 10, half, plus half is 1 whole. here is the problem with the 15 lbs answer. picture a chicken - cut it in half lengthwise. half of it weighs 7.5 lbs, right? right. you need a whole chicken, so you take a 10 lbs half, as given to us in the problem, and tack it on. they don't fit, half the chicken is 7.5 lbs, the other half is 10 lbs. you have a lopsided bird.
The question states the chicken is 10 lbs plus half its weight. That would be 15 lbs. Half of 10 is 5.
10 + 5 = 15
okay... seeing how the webmaster has posted the answer... and it seems people still can't argue it... I now officially feel sorry for tomorrow's youth... as the adults of today aren't doing too well.
Wow Will , calm down. It was clear that my answer was a joke. People were looking waaaaay too much into the question and I was just taking it to the next step.
And yes, people are idiots but it is definitely not just todays youth. The US school system has always been messed up and behind the rest of the world.
what? my response that moon chickens taste like gator wasn't funny enough for you? man, I'm slipping!
The chicken weighs 10lbs plus half it's weight...
10+(10 x .5)
10+(5)=15lbs
I think that's the answer, unless I misunderstood the problem...
you did
did IQ's just drop while i was away?...half the chicken's weight could be absolutely any value...hypothetically let's say 50lbs...so it weighs 10 + (50/2) = 35...just substitute any value into it's final weight...in other words there is no answer...it is a non-question!!...now drop it will ya!
I don't think anyone's iq dropped more than the dude above me...
15 lbs people!!!
20 pounds
Hey, Rajesh, did you ever think that when you posted this question people would argue for so long about it? Even after you posted the answer?
Frankly speaking it was meant for a quick trick , a one minute solution, but after posting it and asking the question to a number of people i get 15 as an instant and repeated answer.
which is so amazing :)
I like the ones that say it's not answerable. :)
but it really kills me when the math is shown and they still argue it...
To those who say 15 because the chicken weighs ten. What??? Why would the question say "The chicken WEIGHS ten pounds... how much does it weigh?"
To the people who said it could weigh anything.... try doing an equation first. I'm only saying this because some still don't understand.
Lastly, do chickens really get to weigh twenty pounds?!?!?!?!
The answer is 20. The algebra in that Will and Judy posted is correct. Seriously, how old are you guys? Can't even do 5th grade math.
The answer is 20. If you think it is 15 here is why it is wrong.
If you consider the statement 10 plus half its weight and you think the weight is 15, then shouldn't you be adding 7.5 to 10 pounds. 7.5 is half of 15 right? RIGHT? Last time I checked, 7.5 is half of 15, and that plus 10 does not equal 15, but you insist its 15. OMG!! what!! HOW CAN THAT BE!!! Because you are not considering the logic.
consider the question was the chicken weighed 6 plus half its weight. the answer would be 12. WHY? 6 plus 6 equals 12, and half of 12 equals 6, and 6 plus 6 equals 12...get the point? now consider the real question. 10 plus half its weight. 10 plus 10 equals 20. half of 20 is 10. 10 plus 10 equals 20. dur dur dur.
people who said 15 are really dumb
the weight is (10 PLUS HALF OF ITS WEIGHT) NOT 10...
people i recommend u to learn math and reading
OMFG!!!!!!!!
i figured it out!!!...took me about 20 minutes..listen carefully.
A chicken weighs ten pounds plus half of its weight. How much does it weight?
now lookie what i see===its weight
its w<>EIGHT
if u think it over then u see it clearly, there are ten characters total in the phrase "its weight" including the space.....divide than into two parts and you get
its w.....eight
the answer is eight
sorry to burst all the cool theorys n stuff...
Dude... the webmaster already posted the correct answer to this question... it was indeed twenty. Though I will give you credit for originality.
awww....i didn't know it was answered...i dont see that...oh...nvm
....i was the person with the last anonymous post....
15 ibs.
Boggles the mind that so many people can get such a simple problem wrong, and then discuss it for this long.
Who care what is wieghs! Just as long as it tastes good
Yuh, It's 15.
20
The answer is 13.5kg.
x=5/3+1/2)*(2/4*5.5)
Am I right? Am I right???
the answer is 20 pounds as posted by rajesh above, check
Isn't it impossible because you could go on forever adding half of its weight?
its: 5X
15 duh its not that hard
15 duh its not that hard
15 duh its not that hard
15 duh its not that hard
Lets get to the bottom of this. I think we can all agree that a chicken weighs half its weight--what ever weight the chicken is, it must include half its own weight. So, where "w" represents the chicken's total weight, it follows:
10lbs + 1/2w = 1/2w +10lbs.
Since the equation above is balanced, it becomes immediately clear that we must establish the balance of the chicken--and chickens can only be balanced if they are standing on two feet! Thus, a chicken can only weigh all of its weight IF it is standing on both feet.
It is commonly know that chickens never stand on both feet int he morning, so we can rule those chickens out. Wild chickens cannot be weighed becasue they cannot be captured without being killed, so we can rule them out. Domesticated chickens are generally killed for food before the afternoon, so it follows that no actual chickens can be weighed.
However, theoretically, we can solve this problem. If one could buy all the necessary chicken parts form a KFC and reconstitute a chicken, in such a way that it could be balanced on two feet, you might be able to extrapolate an answer. However, patronizing a KFC may drive their stock price artificially high, which could lead to total pandemonium. Ergo, functionally, this is an unknowable probelm. Sorry for the bad news, but logic is a harsh anbd thoughtless master.
you people scare me...
and for the person that said it was 15 and "duh its not that hard" uhm...dude, you're wrong.
The answer is already posted (20 lbs)... I have no officially lost all faith in people...
I can't beleive how many stupid people there are out there. I'm 13 years old, and even I figured it out pretty quick.
It is 10 lbs. It even says so in the question. "A chicken weighs ten pounds "
"cuss word" + "even worse cuss word"
come one people, the answer was like in the first 3 responses and there are idiots in here steadily responding and responding. i aggree with some of the name calling in here. the problem is simple, its simple algebra, something any 8th or pos even 7th grader can do (i.e. 12 or 13 yo). the world needs to be subjected to mandatory algebra, for "the greater good"
-hey theyve killed people in movies for 'the greater good' can we start?
Ok, for those people who say it's 15, you're not WRONG per se, you're just INPRECISE. Let's use your logic to arrive at a sufficiently more precise answer. It's a complicated method for answering such a simple question, but it works nonetheless.
"A chicken weighs ten pounds plus half of its weight."
So let's assume that the chicken weighs 10lbs:
10 + 5 = 15
Well, it turns out that the chicken actually weighs 15lbs, not 10, as we originally thought. BUT, if the chicken weighs 15lbs, then half its weight is 7.5, not 5:
10 + 7.5 = 17.5
17.5lbs is a BETTER answer, but still not quite precise enough, because half of 17.5 is 8.75, not 7.5:
10 + 8.75 = 18.75
We find that every time we repeat this process, we get a more and more precise answer:
10 + 18.75/2 = 19.375
10 + 19.375/2 = 19.6875...and so on.
In fact, if we repeat this process an infinite number of times, we will arrive at the correct answer.
In mathematical terms, this is called a Limit.
Let's say the weight of the chicken, as far as we know, is W, and W(0) = 10, and that W(n) = W(n-1)/2 + 10.
So, to find the weight of the chicken, we just need to find the Limit as n goes to infinity of W(n)/2 + 10:
W(0) = 10
W(1) = 10 + 5/2 = 15
W(2) = 10 + 15/2 = 17.5
W(3) = 10 + 17.5/2 = 18.75
W(4) = 10 + 18.75/2 = 19.375
W(5) = 10 + 19.375/2 = 19.6875
W(6) = 10 + 19.6875/2 = 19.84375
W(7) = 10 + 19.84375/2 = 19.921875
W(8) = 10 + 19.921875/2 = 19.960938
W(9) = 10 + 19.960938/2 = 19.980469
W(10) = 10 + 19.980469/2 = 19.990234
W(11) = 10 + 19.990234/2 = 19.995117
W(12) = 10 + 19.995117/2 = 19.997559
W(13) = 10 + 19.997559/2 = 19.998779
W(14) = 10 + 19.998779/2 = 19.99939
W(15) = 10 + 19.99939/2 = 19.999695
W(16) = 10 + 19.999695/2 = 19.999847
W(17) = 10 + 19.999847/2 = 19.999924
W(18) = 10 + 19.999924/2 = 19.999962
W(19) = 10 + 19.999962/2 = 19.999981
W(20) = 10 + 19.999981/2 = 19.99999
W(21) = 10 + 19.99999/2 = 19.999995
W(22) = 10 + 19.999995/2 = 19.999998
W(23) = 10 + 19.999998/2 = 19.999999
W(24) = 10 + 19.999999/2 = 19.999999
....
W = 10 + 20/2 = 20
the answer is one and a half chickens..duh
W = 10 + (W/2)
2W = 20 + W
W = 20
Weight is 20Lbs
Pretty sure lbs is mass not weight
i think its 15
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