Measure 30 Minutes and 15 minutes with a 20 Minute Candle

2010

Feb

Puzzle

2 Candles each which can burn for 20 minutes each are given to you. How will you measure a time of
1) 30 minutes?
2) 15 minutes ?
(You are not having a watch or clock :D and the rate of candle burning varies from section to section on the candle.)

Show the Answer

To measure 30 minutes, first of all light one candle at both the ends, now the time taken by the candle to burn is 10 minute. Then light the second candle and now the time taken would be 20 minute,
So you can measure a total time of 30 minutes.

To measure 15 minutes, light one candle at one end and one candle at both ends. Now when the candle burns out it would be 10 minute and there would be 10 minutes of candle left in the still lit candle. Now light the second end of that candle and it would burn for 5 minutes.
Hence we can measure a total time of 15 minutes.

Measure 30 Minutes and 15 minutes with a 20 Minute Candle

2 Candles each which can burn for 20 minutes each are given to you. How will you measure a time of 1) 30 minutes? 2) 15 minutes ? (You are not having a watch or clock :D and the rate of candle burning varies from section to section on the candle.)

2 Candles each which can burn for 20 minutes each are given to you. How will you measure a time of
1) 30 minutes?
2) 15 minutes ?
(You are not having a watch or clock :D and the rate of candle burning varies from section to section on the candle.)