Survive The Fire
Isaac Newton is stranded on an island covered in forest.
One day, when the wind is blowing from the west, lightning strikes the west end of the island and sets fire to the forest. The fire is very violent, burning everything in its path, and without intervention the fire will burn the whole island, killing the man in the process.
There are cliffs around the island, so he cannot jump off.
How can the Isaac Newton survive the fire?
(There are no buckets or any other means to put out the fire.)
Also considering that he has got no other tools to dig the ground, would he survive till the end at that island?
Solution :
Isaac Newton picks up a piece of wood and lights it from the fire on the west end of the island.
He then quickly carries it near the east end of the island and starts a new fire. The wind will cause that fire to burn out the eastern end and he can then easily shelter in the burnt area.
(Irony : Isaac Newton will definitely survive the fire, but he will surely die of starvation, with all the food in the forest burnt.)
The wind is flowing from the west, which means the fire will catch up faster towards the east than towards north or south. Newton can choose to go in either directions (north or south). Also, we can assume the fire will consume larger areas in the directions of north and south as it moves further towards the east (i.e. making a frustum-like fire zone). Hence, after reaching south (or north), Newton can choose to move towards the extreme southern west (or northern west) in due time.
Your Answer
More puzzles to try-
What is the logic behind these ?
3 + 3 = 3 5 + 4 = 4 1 + 0 = 3 2 + 3 = 4 ...Read More »Defective stack of coins puzzle
There are 10 stacks of 10 coins each. Each coin weights 10 gms. However, one stack of coins is defective ...Read More »Which clock works best?
Which clock works best? The one that loses a minute a day or the one that doesn’t work at all?Read More »(Advanced) Cheryl’s Birthday Puzzle
Paul, Sam and Dean are assigned the task of figuring out two numbers. They get the following information: Both numbers ...Read More »Five greedy pirates and gold coin distribution Puzzle
Five puzzleFry ship’s pirates have obtained 100 gold coins and have to divide up the loot. The pirates are all ...Read More »Magical flowers!!
A devotee goes to three temples, temple1, temple2 and temple3 one after the other. In front of each temple, there ...Read More »Tuesday, Thursday what are other two days staring with T?
Four days are there which start with the letter ‘T‘. I can remember only two of them as “Tuesday , Thursday”. ...Read More »How could only 3 apples left
Two fathers took their sons to a fruit stall. Each man and son bought an apple, But when they returned ...Read More »How Many Eggs ?
A farmer is taking her eggs to the market in a cart, but she hits a pothole, which knocks over ...Read More »HARD MATHS – How much faster is one train from other Puzzle
Two trains starting at same time, one from Bangalore to Mysore and other in opposite direction arrive at their destination ...Read More »Most Analytical GOOGLE INTERVIEW Question Revealed
Let it be simple and as direct as possible. Interviewer : Tell me how much time (in days) and money would ...Read More »Lateral thinking sequence Puzzle
Solve this logic sequence puzzle by the correct digit- 8080 = 6 1357 = 0 2022 = 1 1999 = ...Read More »How did he know?
A man leaves his house in the morning to go to office and kisses his wife. In the evening on ...Read More »Pizza Cost Math Brain Teaser
Jasmine, Thibault, and Noah were having a night out and decided to order a pizza for $10. It turned out ...Read More »Which letter replaces the question mark
Which letter replaces the question markRead More »Which room is safest puzzle
A murderer is condemned to death. He has to choose between three rooms. The first is full of raging fires, ...Read More »Richie’s Number System
Richie established a very strange number system. According to her claim for different combination of 0 and 2 you will ...Read More »Srabon wanted to pass
The result of math class test came out. Fariha’s mark was an even number. Srabon got a prime!! Nabila got ...Read More »Become Normal!!
Robi is a very serious student. On the first day of this year his seriousness for study was 1 hour. ...Read More »Sakib Knows The Number!
Ragib: I got digits of a 2 digit number Sakib: Is it an odd? Ragib: Yes. Moreover, the sum of ...Read More »
