Two people walk to the top of a cylindrical lighthouse, one via a straight ladder up the middle and the...

geometry/lighthouse New

New entry, edited from material collected for the archive and not yet in a released version.

Problem

Two people walk to the top of a cylindrical lighthouse, one via a
straight ladder up the middle and the other via a helical ladder up
the inside wall.  If helical ladder winds around the tower once and
they both arrive at the same time, what is the ratio of their speeds?

Due to a transcription error the problem as stated cannot be solved.
Rather than just fix it though, it seems more fun to ask: what
assumption would you add to make this problem solvable?

[ Editor: a "Meta Puzzle - Geometry" posted by Chris Cole
<chris@questrel.com> in March 1994; the second paragraph is from his
reply to David Moews, who had said there was not enough information. ]

Show solution

I think I'd ask for the ratio of the circumference of the lighthouse to
its height.  Or is that too much to ask for?

-- Ted Schuerzinger <fedya@dartmouth.edu>

[ Editor: no other answers were in the collected postings. ]