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Topic: The acrobat thief and the gold ropes (Read 7214 times) |
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BNC
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The acrobat thief and the gold ropes
« on: Jan 1st, 2003, 9:22am » |
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An acrobat thief enters an ancient temple, and finds the following scenario:
1. The roof of the temple is 100 meters high.
2. In the roof there are two holes, separated by 1 meter.
3. Through each hole passes a single gold rope, each going all the way to the floor.
4. There is nothing else in the room.
The thief would like to cut and steal as much of the ropes as he can. However, he knows that if he falls from height that is greater than 10 meters, he will die. The only thing in his possession is a knife.
How much length of rope can the acrobat thief get? And how?
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| « Last Edit: Oct 23rd, 2003, 7:47pm by Icarus » |
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towr
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Re: New: The acrobat thief and the gold ropes
« Reply #1 on: Jan 1st, 2003, 10:21am » |
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dependign on the thickness of the rope, and ignoring that gold rope probably can't be 100 meters long anyway..
About 199 meters..
first take both ropes together, and climb up, cut one rope nearly at the top, but leave just enough to make a nice loop. Put the cut-off piece of rope through the loop and start hanging on it, cut the other rope at the top. Now climb down the rope that hanging through the loop, making sure to hold both end tight, since lettign go on one end means it will go through the loop and you'll fall. Take one end of the rope, and tie the other cut-off rope to that end. lower yourself by letting the now longer end of the rope slide through your fingers, while holding on to the short end (which is going down as the other end goes up). When on the ground pull the long end till the whole rope falls through the loop.
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BNC
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Re: New: The acrobat thief and the gold ropes
« Reply #2 on: Jan 1st, 2003, 11:32am » |
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That was fast! And it works.
One note, though: your way requiers our thief to hang from two parts of the rope 50m above ground, and there (using his 3rd hand?  ) to tie the rope.
There is a slightly less demanding way to get your (correct) answer.
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towr
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Re: New: The acrobat thief and the gold ropes
« Reply #3 on: Jan 1st, 2003, 11:38am » |
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on Jan 1st, 2003, 11:32am, BNC wrote:That was fast! And it works.
One note, though: your way requiers our thief to hang from two parts of the rope 50m above ground, and there (using his 3rd hand? ) to tie the rope.
There is a slightly less demanding way to get your (correct) answer. |
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I was think hang on by your feet.. Acrobats are good at that..
But yes, there is an easier, safer way.. (actually a multiple number of easier safer ways). One would be to make a loop in the first cut-off piece of rope, put it through the loop that you made just after you cut it off, then put the end through the loop on the cutoff. And eventually putting the second piece of rope on the loop so you can pull it free.. (It'd be easier if I could show you, but this poor excuse for an explanation will have to do)
Another (unsafe) way to get the rope is to cut it to the point where it can barely hold your weight, then climb down (gently), and at the end pull very hard, snapping it at the top.
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| « Last Edit: Jan 1st, 2003, 11:41am by towr » |
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BNC
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Re: New: The acrobat thief and the gold ropes
« Reply #4 on: Jan 1st, 2003, 12:08pm » |
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Just another way...
What I was thinking about was to tie the two ropes while down, then climbing on one of them, cutting, looping, threading till the knot, moving to the side, cut other rope, slide down on both, pull rope free.
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James Fingas
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Re: New: The acrobat thief and the gold ropes
« Reply #5 on: Jan 9th, 2003, 12:15pm » |
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Here's an even safer (and easier?) way:
Climb up rope A, cut rope B off with enough left to make a loop. Tie rope B to its loop using a slipknot (let the long piece hang down so that it doesn't undo the knot, and leave a short piece hanging that does undo the knot).
Climb over to the long piece of rope B, then cut off rope A and tie it to the short piece of rope B. Climb down the long piece of rope B (there'll be a drop of 1 or 2 meters at the bottom). Now pull on rope A to undo the slipknot. Tada!
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mook
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Re: New: The acrobat thief and the gold ropes
« Reply #6 on: Jan 14th, 2003, 11:11am » |
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i was thinking along the lines of bnc, except i think you can get 200m of rope. tie the ropes together at the bottom. climb rope A. cut rope B then thread rope B through the hole it hangs out of then back down through hole A. Holding on to both scetions of rope B, cut rope A at the top, climb down holding both ropes, then pull them them through the holes when you're at the bottom.
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Chronos
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Re: New: The acrobat thief and the gold ropes
« Reply #7 on: Jan 17th, 2003, 1:00pm » |
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Since BNC beat me to the tie-first-then-climb method, I'm going to start thinking outside of the box, and suggest that the thief just climb the wall, and cut both ropes at the top. The abilities of an "acrobatic thief" are not fully specified.
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Enigma
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Re: New: The acrobat thief and the gold ropes
« Reply #8 on: Feb 10th, 2003, 6:10pm » |
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My version of thinking outside of the box was to assume that the so called 2 ropes were in fact one long 201m rope. The riddle says that the ropes pass through the hole in the ceiling and go all the way to the floor but says nothing of how they're bound in that hole. Certainly they're not just levitating in the hole while allowing someone to climb up them. So I envisioned a rope passing through one hole, going across the 1m on top of the roof than coming back down through the other hole for a total of 201m. So if he wants all of it, he just has to pull on one end
Ok so it's kind of out there, but i thought it was clever at least.
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poseur
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Re: New: The acrobat thief and the gold ropes
« Reply #9 on: Feb 11th, 2003, 4:16pm » |
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If you want thinking outside the box, consider that no mention is made of how big the holes are. So you climb up one rope and through the hole onto the roof. You pull both ropes up through the holes, and then see if there's a fire escape to climb down outside the building, or tie the ropes together and find anything at all that you can loop the ropes around, perhaps even climbing back down through the hole.
And of course, ancient temples are often buried under ground, so the roof may actually be at ground level and need no climbing down.
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Icarus
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Re: New: The acrobat thief and the gold ropes
« Reply #10 on: Feb 11th, 2003, 5:45pm » |
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Or better yet, The thief was thoughtful enough to bring along a cutting laser (yes, and the truck to carry it in). This "outside the box" solution at least does not require the temple builders to be cooperative!
The problem with "outside the box" puzzle solutions is that they ignore what makes the puzzle interesting in the first place! 
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SWF
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Re: New: The acrobat thief and the gold ropes
« Reply #11 on: Feb 11th, 2003, 6:51pm » |
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on Feb 11th, 2003, 5:45pm, Icarus wrote:| The problem with "outside the box" puzzle solutions is that they ignore what makes the puzzle interesting in the first place! |
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That is a good point. Look what happened to the 100 prisoners and a lightbulb question.
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jk
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Re: New: The acrobat thief and the gold ropes
« Reply #12 on: May 23rd, 2003, 11:15am » |
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I do not believe that 199 is the optimal solution. I believe the thief, depending on the thickness of the rope and how much skill he has at tying knots, should be able to retrive basically all of it minus a vary small amount (definately less than 1 meter). Consider the following.
1) climb up the first rope, making sure you have a handle on the second rope as you climb.
2) once you get to the top of rope 1, tie rope 2 (at about 1 meter from the top of rope 2) to the top of rope 1 using a slip knot, so that the long end of rope 2 when tugged, undoes the slip know
3) cut rope 2 on side of the slip knot that undoes the knot, leaving some slack on the slip knot to tie something to it, don't forget to hold rope two after it has been cut, you will need to use it.
------------------------------------o-----------------------o----------- ---
x----------------------/ <--rope two
slipknot release -> / | <--rope 1
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4) At this point, it should look like above pciture, with the thief hanging on rope 1. Now transfer yourself from rope 1 to the horizontal part of rope2.
5) cut and hold rope one below the knot, but as high as possible.
6) tie rope 1 to the horizontal part of rope 2.
7) grab and hole rope 1, as you shimmy over to the top of rope 2.
 cut off rope two at the very top, which will make you drop, but you are holding on to rope 1 and rope 2, so you will only fall about 1 meter in a circular fashion, so you should be fine.
9) now climb down rope 1.
10) once at the bottom, tug on rope 2, releasing slip knot
thus you have gotten all the rope, accept the amount that was left at the very top of rope1 when you cut it below the slip knot.
Please tell me what you all think of this solution.
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jk
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Re: New: The acrobat thief and the gold ropes
« Reply #13 on: May 23rd, 2003, 11:17am » |
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sorry about the picture, it did not turn out as it looked when i was typing it
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vj
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Re: New: The acrobat thief and the gold ropes
« Reply #14 on: Jun 9th, 2003, 10:28pm » |
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perhaps an unsafe method but nevertheless, the thief can cut
just enough of both ropes at the very top to hold his weight. the thief being an acrobat can easily grab both ropes in each hand and make a steady descent. since his weight is distributed between the two it wont cause breakage. the thief reaches 10 metres and quickly transfers all weight onto one. the rope breaks. being an acrobat after a drop of say 5 metres he can stabilise and grab the other rope and hence bring this down also or simply just tug at it from the ground using most of his weight. he can make the method safer by trial methods i.e- gradually increasing the depths of the cuts at the top to find optimum. this would however require several climbs.
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vj
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Re: New: The acrobat thief and the gold ropes
« Reply #15 on: Jun 9th, 2003, 10:44pm » |
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Thief gets 200m or more of gold - an out of the box possibility -
since gold is a metal at standard temperature and pressure and since the so called 'ropes' extend all the way to the floor.
i thought why would ropes extend all the way why not finish a metre or so before the floor so that they 'look' like 'hanging' ropes at least but in fact the two so called ropes can be thought of as 2 poles of gold which are supported by the floor and therefore no need to climb - simply cut at very base and bring em down. indeed the length of the ropes has not been specified - we just know the roof is 100m and we also know both 'poles' extend all the way 'at least' so in real terms there may be more 'rope' than 200m total which may extend out of the roof to wherever and hence thief ends up with more than 200m gold. Tell me what u think.
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vj
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Re: New: The acrobat thief and the gold ropes
« Reply #16 on: Jun 9th, 2003, 10:55pm » |
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has anyone considered how the thief gets out, because the riddle also mentions - 'there is nothing else in the room' - could and probably does include all types of escapes and doors etc. there's no mention of how he gets in - maybe thru one of the two holes. if this is so and ignoring my previous out of the box possibility and also crediting one of the previous responses the thief would simply climb out of one hole and take both ropes.
i also like enigmas reply to this riddle.
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Zeke the Geke
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Re: New: The acrobat thief and the gold ropes
« Reply #17 on: Jun 11th, 2003, 9:50am » |
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on Jun 9th, 2003, 10:55pm, vj wrote:| has anyone considered how the thief gets out, because the riddle also mentions - 'there is nothing else in the room' - could and probably does include all types of escapes and doors etc... |
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Don't stop so soon. If you're going to consider the possibility that there really is nothing else in the room, then the thief is dead because there is no air either. The open holes must mean that outside the temple is airless as well. Where does it stop?
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jack sanga
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Re: New: The acrobat thief and the gold ropes
« Reply #18 on: Jun 12th, 2003, 8:01am » |
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yes youre right - thief could be dead and may be wishing to 'steal' the gold into the next world or something.
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Lightboxes
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Re: New: The acrobat thief and the gold ropes
« Reply #19 on: Aug 6th, 2003, 9:34pm » |
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Modified...
I got this idea after sleeping and thinking of what jk (guest) said; however, I could not understand him too well. So I took a pic and put a link to illustrate what I came up with if there is no space between the holes and the ropes.
I hope the link works.
http://lightboxes.4t.com/photo6.html
Cut the rope on the left (I forgot to put a shoe lace there) and tie it to the slip knot (the short end). Then climb down the long end (you'll still be off the ground but not by much), and pull on the "short" end and you'll fall with both ropes with that little knot left at the top, which is very very small.
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| « Last Edit: Aug 7th, 2003, 9:44am by Lightboxes » |
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Icarus
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Re: New: The acrobat thief and the gold ropes
« Reply #20 on: Aug 7th, 2003, 3:51pm » |
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Your link works for me, but what's with those captions? (Apparently you come from a very geometric family!)
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Jon Arbuckle
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Re: The acrobat thief and the gold ropes
« Reply #21 on: Sep 16th, 2004, 9:03pm » |
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climb up rope b
cut rope a completely off. pull up rope b with one hand (so you have the bottom end) and tie that to the end of rope a you are holding with your left hand
tie them together tightly (you can do this with 1 1/2 hands.)
theya re now one very long rope..throw the one over the hole at the top of the temple (so it goes through one window,m out the other..keep retrying until you get it.. then swing over and grab that end of rope a. now you should have hold of the top of rope b and bottom of rope a. now cut rope b completely off..and then just slowly move yourself down one hand on each rope. you can do this by kind of releasing your grip for a few centimeters and then re-gripping. your hands may hurt but you get a lot of gold 
when you get to the bottom simply pull on one end of the long rope and then run the hell out of there when the rest of the rope comes down (avoid golden whiplash!!)
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BNC
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Re: The acrobat thief and the gold ropes
« Reply #22 on: Sep 16th, 2004, 11:35pm » |
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on Sep 16th, 2004, 9:03pm, Jon Arbuckle wrote:
<snip>..throw the one over the hole at the top of the temple (so it goes through one window,m out the other..keep retrying until you get it..
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That may work only if the holes diameter is quite larger than the ropes diameter...
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Grimbal
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Re: The acrobat thief and the gold ropes
« Reply #23 on: Sep 17th, 2004, 6:05am » |
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In ancient temples there are always apes. Go up and cut the 1st rope right at the top. Give the knife to the ape, sure enough he will go up and cut the second rope for you.
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