Lateral Thinking Questions

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ANSWER: L.T.Q. #51

Date: Fri, 15 Nov 1996 14:52:26 -0500 (EST)

Hey! I said I wanted your replies by Thursday! I didn't say I was going to give you my reply on Thursday! Who's running things here, anyway? (No, that is not another Lateral Thinking Question!) Besides, I have had another rash of computer problems, and my system was down yesterday.

Here is this week's question:

A barge loaded with pig iron was in a lock. For some unknown reason the captain of the barge threw his iron overboard into the water. What happened to the water level in the lock?

ANSWER:

The water lever in the lock went down. When the iron was in the barge, it displaced its own weight of water. But when it was thrown overboard, it displaced its own volume of water— which would be much less. To put it another way, because the boat was lighter, it rode much hight in the water, causing the water level to go down.

As for the Ponderings, Liz gave the following synopsis: "The iron was a steam iron and likely overheated and went on fire. The load the captain tossed was the steam iron, and likely the clothes he set on fire when he was dumb enough to leave his ironing and laundry unattended. He went for the only available source of water— the lock. And finally, no charges were laid except maybe littering (unless you can charge him with Stupidity)." As far as I know, Stupidity is not a crime in this country. If it were, there would be no groceries on the shelves!

Jamie wanted to know "What in the dickens is pig iron?" Well, according to Mr. Oxford, a pig is "an oblong mass of metal (usually iron) from the smelting-furnace," hence pig iron. Essentially, it's the next stage in the process after the iron ore. Other ingredients are then added to pig iron to make different alloys. (This explanation has been provided courtesy of the Seventh Grade Science Class at Harry J. Clarke Public School.)

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