Article September 10, 1979 Issue

Stay afloat!

MARY H. GILL

One day my son and I were listening to a radio quiz show, seeing how many of the questions we could answer. We weren't doing too badly. Then came this trick question: A boat is sitting in a harbor with a ladder fixed to the side of it. There are ten rungs of the ladder showing above the water, and the distance between each rung is one foot. If the tide is rising one foot every hour, and it will be high tide in six hours, how many rungs will then be showing above the water?

Simple, we thought. And so did the contestant, who quickly answered "four." But we had all made the same mistake. There would still be ten rungs above the water, because the boat was floating. As the tide rose, so would the boat!

We laughed at our gullibility. All our calculations were unnecessary. We had overlooked the vital point—the nature of a boat, which is to float.

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