Clock Crypt
"Well I was proceeding down Lettsby Avenue," said Police Constable Klepto, "and had just turned around into Silent Mews."
"And what time was this" asked Queen's Counsel Casey,
"Well I don't remember, but the hour hand and the minute hand were exactly on minute divisions of the clock face and the minute hand was exactly 13 minute divisions ahead of the hour hand."
Luckily Dr. Chronos was in the court. What time did he suggest the recorder record?
"And what time was this" asked Queen's Counsel Casey,
"Well I don't remember, but the hour hand and the minute hand were exactly on minute divisions of the clock face and the minute hand was exactly 13 minute divisions ahead of the hour hand."
Luckily Dr. Chronos was in the court. What time did he suggest the recorder record?
Labels: logic, trickofmind
posted by Rajesh Lal at
8:14 PM
7 Comments:
4.36 am or pm.
opps, I see someone posted the right answer while I was figuring.
13 minutes on the clock is 78 degrees.
Each minute the long hand moves 6 degrees, and the long hand moves 0.5 degrees.
If it is exactly on the minute, then only time in a 12 hour period that the long hand is exactly 78 degrees more than the short hand is at 4:36.
At that time the long hand is at 216 degrees and the short hand is at 138 degrees.
Objection!
If the constable was able to observe and memorized the exact location of the clock hands, then surely he should have seen the clock as a whole and determine the time.
Now, there is a possibility that the witness is illiterate, but is it not a requirement to be able to read and write to become a constable?*
Therefore, the witness is obscuring the evidence!
* - I'm not sure if this is true, please enlighten me.
Watch a lot of Law&Order I see... but what you forget is that the constable was turning around and only able to see the clock for a second while the first thing i would do would check the actual time, I guess Mr.Klepto memorizes spaces rather than numbers
Or perhaps, Constable Klepto had a cerebral commissurotomy (the operation that splits the two hemispheres of the brain). If he was wearing the watch on his left hand he could decern the shapes an angles, but he would not be able to represent it in "numbers".
haha, Or may be Klepto has one of those Rolex watch which shines in dark, no number just green bling bling
The only minutes past the hour where the hour hand is exactly on a minute are 12,24,36,etc. See Rag's correct albeit rather longwinded explanation above.
As an aside, the answer to this question (for illiterate people like myself) the other way around is 7:24-The hour hand would be 13' ahead of the minute hand.
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