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        riddles >> what happened >> Weeping Tower
        
(Message started by: alien2 on Oct 2^nd, 2013, 4:20am)

Title: Weeping Tower
Post by alien2 on Oct 2^nd, 2013, 4:20am

A man approaches a 50 m tall and round tower on a coast. The door is open and the window near the top is closed. There is a flag with a big black eye on a white field, carried by a ropeless flagpole centered on the top. The square flag has a side 2 m long. He enters the tower out of curiosity and the door closes behind him. Sensing danger, he tries to open the door, to no avail. He is even more scared and puzzled because his backpack vibrates for a few seconds. He notices a big black eye on the ceiling staring at him. A weepy voice addresses him: I am Weeping Tower. I am above all mean since I will soon start to shed tears of joy. Huge tears will continuously fall from my eye until I am completely filled with seawater within 3 hrs. The legend among us sentient towers says that before oceans, there was Lone Tower. Lone Tower was lonely because he was the first and only living creation on Earth, so he started to cry and his tears made the seas. There is a magical hemisphere around my eye and it cannot be penetrated by you. You cannot open the window or damage its magic glass. Although I would be delighted if you drown, I prefer even more so that you die of thirst or jump. And since my trapdoor is unlocked, you may use the staircase and climb all the way to my top if you like. I have disintegrated the flask of water and other objects in your backpack, excepting the rope. The rope is a few meters longer than my height. But I have cast a spell on your rope, so that you can firmly grab only 2 m of both ends whereas the rest of the rope is very slippery. The slippery part of the rope will remain like so for one month and it cannot be cleaned by liquid or other means. You strike me like someone who likes riddles. I too like riddles, and so I will tell you that there is a way for you to survive this. I feel sorry for you so now I will start to cry my eye out. How could the man save himself?

Title: Re: Weeping Tower
Post by Nursejim on Oct 4^th, 2013, 5:56am

“I will not say, do not weep, for not all tears are an evil.” ― J.R.R. Tolkien

Title: Re: Weeping Tower
Post by alien2 on Nov 14^th, 2013, 5:44am

How could the man use the rope and [hide]the flagpole[/hide]?

Improvise, Adapt and Overcome! - Clint Eastwood, Heartbreak Ridge

Title: Re: Weeping Tower
Post by alien2 on Dec 27^th, 2013, 3:51am

Answer: [hide]He ties one dry end of the rope to the flagpole and then spools the slippery part of the rope around the flagpole up to the other dry end of the rope, which then he ties around his waist. He should then grab firmly dry part of the rope around his waist, lean back and slowly start making careful steps while unrolling the slippery rope from the flagpole. Thus he could spiral down around the walls of the tower until reaching the firm ground.[/hide]

Title: Re: Weeping Tower
Post by Grimbal on Jan 1^st, 2014, 11:50am

I'd like to improve on the answer
[hideb]It could be a problem to go around the tower and unroll the rope, especially if the top is crenellated.
So I would propose the man attaches one end to the flagpole, the other end to himself and rolls the rope around his waist. He can get down while unrolling himself, one half-turn at a time.[/hideb]

Title: Re: Weeping Tower
Post by alien2 on Jan 1^st, 2014, 1:35pm

Both answers require a quite deal of dexterity, so it is questionable which one is easier to apply. But anyway, I thank you for pondering upon the solution of the riddle, which with all modesty, I invented. I would like to add that the roof in my mind wasn't crenellated.