Brainteaser: In How Many Hours Will the Man Catch the Snake?
Shen your puzzle solving skills with this tough brainteaser.
A man has a rectangular garden. One day, he measured the length of the garden and found it to be twice its breadth. He walked along the breadth of the garden and found a snake moving along the length of the garden. The snake moved at a speed of 30 cm/hour while the man walked at a speed of 60 cm/hour. If the man and the snake started moving at the same time, in how many hours will the man catch the snake?
Can you solve it?
So were you able to solve the riddle? Leave your answers in the comment section below.
You can check if your answer is correct by clicking on show answer below. If you get the right answer, please do share the riddle with your friends and family on WhatsApp, Facebook and other social networking sites.
Answer: 2 hours
Explanation:
Let’s assume the breadth of the garden to be ‘B’ and its length to be ‘2B’.
Now, let’s say that the snake starts from one end of the length of the garden, and the man starts chasing it from the other end of the breadth of the garden.
Since the snake is moving along the length of the garden, its distance from the man will decrease at a rate of 30 cm per hour. Similarly, since the man is moving along the breadth of the garden, his distance from the snake will decrease at a rate of 60 cm per hour.
Let’s assume that the man catches the snake after ‘T’ hours. At that point, the distance covered by the man along the breadth of the garden would be equal to the distance covered by the snake along the length of the garden. Mathematically,
60T = 2B … (1) (since the man covers the breadth of the garden) and 30T = length of the garden covered by the snake
Since the length of the garden is 2B, the length covered by the snake would be 2B – the distance remaining to reach the man (since they meet at the same point). Mathematically,
30T = 2B – (2B – B) = B
Substituting the value of 2B from equation (1) in the above equation, we get:
30T = 60T/2 T = 2
Therefore, the man will catch the snake in 2 hours.