Worth 10 Points!!!
 

Math prof (title of class: Math for people who Hate Math and will Not be Math Majors and Promise to Never Hold Positions Requiring Math Competency-Ever) gave us this problem, worth ten actual points, to anyone who can solve it: HELP ME! (Yes, I'm begging.)

You buy 100 lbs of cucumbers. Cukes are 99% water. In a few days they later dry out to 98% water. How much do they weigh?

Oral sex to anyone who can give me the CORRECT answer.

My first intuitive answer is that they still weigh 100 lbs.


That's just my FIRST THOUGHT and we all know I am NOT responsible for my FIRST thought.

GD it!!!!!!!!

I googled it and NO ONE will tell me the answer!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

gd math!!!


(lack of response to thread indicates: A)--no one cares about me
B) NO ONE KNOWS THE ANSWER!!

They originally weigh 100 lbs, 99 lbs of which is water. They loose 1% of their water weight, which is .99 lbs, so the water represents 98.01 lbs. Add to that the weight of the non-water portion of the cucumbers (1 lb) and the weight of the cucumbers after a few days is 98.01 + 1 = 99.01 lbs. But the answer might just as easily be Belgium. I'm feeling a woody already!

http://www.foodreference.com/html/fcucumber.html

this page says they are 95% water. i say it's a trick question and you should be awarded full credit.

are you even sure that they are cucumbers?





(we have armadillos in our trousers)

I love men.

:worried: :yum:

not the answer I am looking for.


Think up!!!

So when does "Spexxvet,Be Gentle" get the reward?
Can I watch? Take pictures? :cool:

did he win?

He lost, I googled it, it's a tricky thing, I won't give it away.

50lb (no googling)

If you've got 100 lbs that is 99% water, it means you've got 99lbs of water and 1 lb of solid cucumber mass. So if you lose 1% of the water, you're losing 1% of 99lbs.

99 x .01 = .99 lbs.

99 - .99 = 98.01 lbs

This means you have 1 lbs of solid cucumber mass plus 98.01 lbs of water for a grand total of 99.01 lbs.

You're not losing 1% of the water.

Going from 99% water to 98% water is a loss of 1% of the water.

No it isn't.

Here's the work:

To start with, 99% water is 99lb/(99lb + 1 lb).

Make 99lb a variable: x/(x+1)
Set to 98%: x/(x+1) = 0.98
Solve for x:
x = 0.98x + 0.98
0.02x = 0.98
x = 98/2 = 49

Total weight is 49 + 1 = 50lb

I agree.

If they are 99% water, then you have 99lb of water and 1lb of pure cucumber.

A few days later, you still have 1lb of pure cucumber, but now that is 2% of the whole, as they are now 98% water.

So if 1lb is 2%, then the whole lot must weight 50lb.

monster's explanation is better.

:blush: Why thank you. You posted first though (by seconds.... ) :lol:

looks like happy monkey is gonna have a happier monkey!

:lol:

cheeky monkey!

Unfortunately, I'm the only man Brianna doesn't like!
:worried:

Are you SURE about that? :biggrinje

Where doe's it say she has to like you? :eyebrow:

How did you do that? I found the problem but not the solution.What did you input to Google? :confused:

cucumbers 99% 98% water weigh

returns

http://www.ajnpx.com/html/Math/Intro...gebraMain.html

The 98% 99% is all the difference, making the search very specific.

Hm. I tried;

You buy 100 lbs of cucumbers. Cukes are 99% water. In a few days they later dry out to 98% water. How much do they weigh?

100 lbs of cucumbers 99% water dry out to 98% water. How much do they weigh?

Marilyn Vos Savant's cucumber problem.

Marilyn Vos Savant's 99% to 98% cucumber problem.
:smack:

thank you, all you nerds! Kisses!!!!!

The problem asks "how much do they weigh", not how much WILL they weigh.They weigh 100 lbs. Dammit.

100 lbs of cucumbers that are 99% water. If cucumber loses water volume, then cucumber is 98% water - by volume. For every cubic foot of 'pure cucumber', we once had 99 cubic feet of water; but now only have 49 cubic feet of water. Still we don't know how much the cucumber weighs because we don't know weight densities.

For example if 99 cubic feet of water weighed 1 pound, then 'pure cucumber' weights 99 pounds. Therefore we have reduced weight from 100 pounds to 99.495 lbs. However if 'pure cucumber' is 10 pounds and 99 cubic feet of water is 90 pounds, then we have reduced cucumber to 54.54 pounds.


To accomplish same assuming 99% water 'by weight' - not by volume. 100 lbs of cucumber is 99 lbs water and 1 lbs 'pure cucumber'. When partially dried, then 1 lbs of pure cucumber remains. To be 98% water (by weight), then 1 lbs cucumber is mixed with 49 lbs water. This time we have eliminated 50 lbs of water or more than 50% of that water - by weight and by volume.

Problem forgot to define percentage in terms of volume or weight - or time. 'Do' is a time before the drying or after the drying? Classic examples of perspective perversion. Therefore only Rush Limbaugh - who is good at providing answers by conventiently making assumptions and forgetting facts - could have answered the question.

Oral sex. Does that mean I get a phone call? Another question of missing information - perspective.

Ok Folks's ,,,

Here ya go ,
What weighs more , a pound of Gold or a Pound of lead ??? :rolleyes:

Aw, that's easy. But which one falls faster if you drop it off the Empire State Building?

Reminds me.....
If eggs were twelve cents a dozen, how much would a hundred eggs be?

ok, before we go on to further mind-blowing questions: which of the above answers to the Cuke Problem is correct???? This is for TEN POINTS!

does anybody else think it's cute that tw answered the question? I think it's adorable!!

I checked and the 50 pound answer is correct. I intend to offer my college student son $5 if he can give me the answer. Of course, you can sweeten the pot if you like.http://www.cellar.org/images/smilies/tongue.gif

At least I'll know his Internet search skills are good.

The problem statement makes it implicit that the criteria is by weight. TW just likes to make things more difficult.

However, you might get extra credit by showing that you at least considered the alternative volume criteria. Unless you think the teacher will pull your paper completely for getting help from your buddies.

It was the 'carrot' - oral sex - that attracted my curiosity. Still wondering how that will occur. Or was there also something ‘implicit’ in that reward?

the mere fact that tw was/is interested in getting oral sex was what really threw me. I can only imagine his 'sex' talk.

PS--does tw win? did he come up with the answer first? If he did--I'm prepared to pay up!

He's the only guy I know who will check to make sure there isn't an STD or an MBA!http://www.cellar.org/images/smilies/lol.gif

'Yes, I can see here that you were a Penthouse Pet of the Year, but where did you go to college?'

'Harvard Business School'

'NEXT!'

COOKIE!!!!!

Good lord...if answering a math question gets you oral sex, what do you get with a nice dinner, a movie and flowers?

You didn't say just the FIRST to give you the correct answer. Anyone.

50 lbs.

Call me at your convenience, sweetie. :love:

OK..... 50 lbs is cool w/me.

from Dumb and Dumber:
:love:

Christ, Brianna, if you read the whole thread and still can't figure out the right answer you don't deserve the 10 points. :headshake

Why did Richard Feynman always have that devilish smile on his face?

Did you really think I was interested in the cucumber?

But, why do you think oral sex involves a carrot?

:smack: Why didn't I know the Cellar when I was taking MY stupid gen ed math class? All those wasted sexual favors on wrong answers...

BTW, sorry, don't have a clue as to the real answer, I have lost my patience with brain teasers of this sort since said math class.

carrot does not equal oral. carrot equals anal. you must be an mba. brianna makes my diodes tingle.

See? I'm not as dumb as you think!

and, tw., right back atcha.

But if you understand those kinds of problems, you can apply your math understanding to real-world problems too. For example, on Friday I developed this strange brain teaser. The math is easy, let's see if you can do it:

Suppose you have a music distribution co-operative where new artists are charged $500 as a one-time lifetime fee for being a part of it.

Suppose this co-operative realizes this model is wrong for most artists, and wants to change it to a monthly membership fee.

Under the old system, 20 artists per month sign up at $500 one-time fee, bringing in $10000 per month. The operation needs this $10000 per month to survive. Under the new system, artists will be charged $29.95 per month. Assuming the new plan brings in 35 artists per month:

A) How many months will it be before it turns a profit?
B) How much cash will the operation lose before it turns a profit?

Now the extra credit.

Most artists have two CDs to distribute, which requires no small amount of work to put into the system. Some artists have 10, which is a burden. Suppose that each artist is charged $50 one time per CD to add their CD to the system. Suppose that the average artist has 2.5 CDs. Now how long will it take?

In my job, I figure something out once, double check the answer, then WRITE THE WHOLE THING DOWN, so I don't have to figure it out again. SO there. :)

No, I'm a lingustics engineer and I read your words more carefully than you write them.

Brianna, don't believe everything you read on the net.

Especially this sentence.

I suck at math, but knowing the starving artist bit pretty well, I'd say you'd have a better chance of getting $500 out of a band in one shot than you would over the course of several $30 payments. People save up for something that's $500, but when they're $30 short at the end of the month...

But I don't know business, either -- what's the bottom line difference between having to handle music for 1500 artists who pay $30 and handling music for 100 artists who pay $500? Doesn't the lessened workload make the latter more appealing?

Sorry for the hijack -- we now return you to your regularly scheduled math problem.....

It doesn't matter now, because the lack of income from the current plan, combined with the general failure of the Melody Mill idea, means there's only enough money in the business to pay Undertoad to work technical problems, and not business-plan problems.

I've been downgraded from part-time employee to contractor, which bottom-line means about half the money and half the hours.

So much for not hijacking...?

Well, it seems that people are still confused. This "math problem" is a marketing scam.

Try this instead:

You buy 100 lbs of cucumbers. Cukes are 1% solids. In a few days they later dry out to 2% solids. How much do they weigh?

Even before all this math bullshit, I've already had aural sex with Brianna. It's really great. I'm totally in love. :faint: