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Wed 1 Jul, 2009 09:59 am
The flagpole on the roof of the a Chocolate Factory is 13 cm in diameter and a perfect cylinder. If one end of a 2300-cm-long string is attached to the top of the flagpole, and wraps around the flagpole exactly 16 times before ending at the bottom of the flagpole, how tall is the flagpole? Please round to the nearest centimetre, and submit only a number
@devlin,
That's not a riddle. It's a maths problem to solve. Maybe someone will come along to solve it for you.
@devlin,
From this discussion
http://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=94758
it looks like a formula for the vertical distance d of one turn of the helical spiral is given by
d=sqrt(l^2-4pi^2 r^2) where l = 2300/16 and r=13/2
The height of the pole would therefore be 16 times that.