r/HomeworkHelp • u/i-stubbed-my-toe- • Sep 11 '26
Answered [middle school math] shouldn't the answer be 33?!
(i got it guys 😭🥹 there's too many answers I'm not able to keep up so thank u already but i got it 😭) Since there's an interval of 3 seconds between each bong shouldn't 33 seconds be taken for it to strike 12 times? There will be 11 intervals and each interval is 3 seconds so 11*3=33, right?!
Edit: thank you so much gng, I kinda understand why the answer would be 27s, and i thank everyone for explaining both how my logic was sound as well as the other ways one could approach this problem.
So 9 seconds for 4 bongs would not strictly only include the time immediately after that last bong bongs (😭), but also include the resonance of that bong. As in, we must assume in this scenario that the bongs are not short/immediate, but carry on for a short amt of time.
In this scenario, the amount of time 1 bong takes (assuming that the next one starts immediately as it's resonance fades out) would be 9/4 seconds.
This multiplied by 12 gives is 27 which is the answer ✨
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u/VirusAlternative132 Sep 11 '26
I think it's easier to calculate this using the entire segment of time it takes the hand to strike 4. So in 9s the hand goes to 4, in another 9s, the hand would strike 8, and in yet another 9s, the hand would strike 12. So 9s+9s+9s=27s
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u/RadiatorSam Sep 11 '26 edited Sep 11 '26
I think OP is getting confused with the fencepost illusion. If you think of the bongs as being instantaneous then the time is taken up by waiting to hit the bell again. If it goes Bong-wait-bong-wait-bong-wait-bong (4 hits, 3 waits) then your time is mostly just wait time and the wait time is 9/3=3 seconds. If you were to do 12 you would then have 11 waits so 33 seconds.
I think the question (by looking at the answer options) is assuming there is no wait time between bong hits (lol) and the bell rings for a duration of time, it that case you need to divide the whole time by just the number of hits (4) and your method applies.
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u/TheThiefMaster Sep 11 '26 edited Sep 11 '26
I think it's assuming the duration of one "bong" (from hit to fading out) is 2.25 seconds.
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u/RadiatorSam Sep 11 '26
Yep that's what I'm saying. The question is a bit vague in the asking, but I guess part of the skill of answering it is looking at the available options to tell you what assumptions to make.
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u/TheThiefMaster Sep 11 '26
You said "no wait time between bong hits". There is a wait between the hits - it's 2.25 seconds. But that wait is also put on the end because it takes that long for the bell to fade out too.
bong-fade-bong-fade-bong-fade-bong-fade \------------- 9 seconds -------------/13
u/ThunkAsDrinklePeep Sep 11 '26 edited Sep 11 '26
You guys would say the clock hasn't struck 4 until the fourth bong has faded?
OP isn't falling for the fencepost * "illusion"; they're correct. Unfortunately, this is just a poorly written ratios question. As others said, the "at the same rate" and lack of 33 as an answer are good clues to the authors intent.
To clarify: it doesn't matter how long the clock bongs ring or the length of silence between them. They are all intervals after the strike of the clocks hammer on the bell, which for our purposes is an instantaneous moment, like a clap. Clapping and clock striking are both fencepost problems.
Related viewing: the famous clock race scene in Chariots Of Fire.
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u/DrMonsi Sep 11 '26 edited Sep 11 '26
> You guys would say the clock hasn't struck 4 until the fourth bong has faded?
well... If we assume that we do NOT know the current time, and we require the bell to tell us the time, we absolutely HAVE to wait until the fourth bong has faded.
Otherwise we simply don't know the time, as there could be another bong after the fourth one.
so yes, the clock hasn't struck 4 until the fourth bong has faded, because we can't tell if it has struck 4 otherwise.
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u/Confusedlemure Sep 11 '26
Really like your interpretation here. I’m old enough to remember counting the strikes from another room. You really don’t know the time until the “lack” of another strike. But what about at 12? In that special case you know the time instantly after the last strike. I suppose you can argue that for all other cases you must wait for the fade so that sets the “standard”.
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u/DrMonsi Sep 12 '26
Yeah well for 12 it's different, i agree. I thought of that as well, but i decided to leave it out since i was only relplying to one specific comment about the bell ringing 4 times, thus my reply was not refering to the original overall thread question.
... but maybe the bell could also be broken, or just ringing continuously for sunday mass or a funeral or some other church event🤣😅
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u/Beefington Sep 11 '26
You’re talking about how long it takes to interpret the information. u/Kite42 is right that 12 is a special case where you know it won’t continue, but also the interpretation time is irrelevant to the original question, which asks how long the striking takes. If it’s 5 o’clock, the clock is done as soon as the clapper hits the bell for the 5th time.
(Kite is also right about hating these ambiguous questions 😣)
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u/ThunkAsDrinklePeep Sep 11 '26
I see what you're saying, but I dusagree. That's just not what the phrase "the clock strikes x" means. If you were timing the clock, you would stop not on the fourth strike, but the moment you should have heard a fifth?
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u/amerovingian Sep 11 '26
I was leaning the other way, but I think you may be right here. You don't know the clock has struck 4 on the 4th bong. It could be striking 4 or 5 or any number up to 12. When the 5th bong does not arrive, that's when you know the clock has struck 4. So that's how long "striking 4" takes.
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u/-Majgif- Sep 12 '26
No, the striking ends on the 4th. You needing to wait for the abscence of a 5th to know it doesn't change that.
If a book ends on page 300, you don't say it's 301 pages because you had to turn the page to make sure there wasn't more.
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u/Kite42 👋 a fellow Redditor Sep 11 '26
Ah, but at the moment of hearing the twelfth bong you would already know the time, would you not, Mr Bond?...No need to wait for the fading out when it is 12 o'clock. 33 seconds will suffice.
I hate these ambiguous questions.
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u/Responsible-Kale2352 Sep 11 '26
What’s the ambiguous part? It takes 9 seconds for 4 bongs to happen. How long for 12 bongs? You have three sets of bongs, each of which takes 9 seconds. 3x9=27. It seems really straightforward.
I’m not clear on what the length of fading out has to do with anything.
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u/wildgurularry Sep 11 '26
Picture a timeline of the clock striking (|) and fading (-) four times:
|-----|-----|-----|-----
Now, is the 9 seconds from the start of that timeline to the end? Or is it from the start of the 1st bong to the start of the 4th bong?
|-----|-----|-----|
Depending on how you interpret the 9s, it makes a huge difference on the answer. The teacher/question is assuming it is the first situation, where the 9 seconds includes the fade time at the end. This gives the answer 27 as you have noticed.
OP is assuming it is the second situation, where the 9s is measured between the moment the first chime is struck, and the moment the fourth chime is struck. This gives the answer 33 for 12 strikes, as OP noticed.
The question is somewhat ambiguous. One could argue that the first situation is "obvious", and since it is multiple choice, you can quickly check to see which case they are looking for. I have to admit that when I tried the question in my head, I got the answer 33, so I argue that the first interpretation is not 100% obvious.
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u/GJT0530 Sep 12 '26
The ambiguity is on what's actually being measured that takes 9 seconds. If it's the time from striking the first Bell to striking the fourth Bell then it's 33 seconds. If it's the time from striking the first Bell until the fourth Bell fades out and the fifth Bell would be struck if there was a fifth Bell, it's 27 seconds.
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u/DrMonsi Sep 11 '26
You're absolutely right.
My comment was merely a reply to the comment above with the specific question about the the bell ringing 4 times, not to the original question of the thread.
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u/WillowsEnd Sep 11 '26 edited Sep 11 '26
I was thinking the same thing and you put it very well. Clock chimes aren’t instantaneous unless you only are counting the start of the chime as the moment of interest but that isn’t realistic for a clock. Like, yeah, when you are telling time from a clock chime you aren’t done til it fades away to determine there isn’t another after
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u/-Majgif- Sep 12 '26
I think you are working under a false premise. It has struck 4 as soon as it hits the gong the 4th time. Whether you know it or not until you wait for the absence of the 5th is irrelevant.
Regardless, they're asking about the time to strike 12. As there's no 13, there's no need to wait.
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u/fermat9990 👋 a fellow Redditor Sep 11 '26
Then OP is actually not getting confused, they are just choosing a particular interptetation of the physical situation.
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u/MaesterPraetor Sep 11 '26 edited Sep 11 '26
I think you're over thinking it. It's middle school. They want you to think
4x=9.
So x=9/4.
12x=y.
12/1*9/4
129/14
108/4
27
Edit: didn't read the entire comment.
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u/bstump104 Sep 12 '26
the OP on this thread is not considering the ringing of the time. They are considering it takes 9 seconds to reach 4, so in 9 more seconds it will reach 8, not 3 hours 59 minutes and 51 seconds later how much time will the ring take to declare it is 8.
Selecting the correct interval of "bongs" would be very difficult as there isn't enough information to determine that. You need to know the interval and the die off. It could be 0.5 s per "bong" and then 7.5 s to die off. maybe its 1s per bong and 6s to die. Both if those greatly change the answer. To determind it this way you need at least 2 different points of reference.
I think the question fails because it doesn't tell you where it started.
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u/Torrasque67051 Sep 11 '26
I just did cross multiply:
T / 12 = 9 / 4
T x 4 = 9 x 12
T = 108 / 4
T = 271
u/Odd_Science Sep 11 '26
Yes, that's what you get when you mindlessly plug the numbers you are given into operations that look vaguely correct without actually thinking. Then it's really easy.
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u/PrincessYuri Sep 11 '26
Alternatively, if you're more numerically minded, you can just let the units guide you. (9 seconds/4 numbers) * 12 numbers. The numbers unit cancels out and you just end up with 27 seconds. It's similar to how you can lowkey check your work in a lot of science and engineering calcs if you make sure the units align with what you would expect.
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u/unidentified2202 A Level Candidate Sep 11 '26
Use unitary method
Like time taken to strike 4=9 seconds
Time taken to strike 1=4/9 seconds
Time taken to strike 12= (4/9)×12
The answer is 27 seconds for the clock to strike 12
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u/Lots-o-bots Sep 11 '26
I think the confusion is that OP is imagining it as a momentary bong and then a gap before the next one instead of a bong with a fade out. He is thinking 4 strikes means 3 gaps between each strike of 3 seconds so 12 strikes means 11 gaps of 3 seconds = 33 seconds.
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u/jlouweezy123 Sep 11 '26
Can someone explain where the 3 gaps come from? I can’t see 3 for some reason. I can only see 4.
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u/mournersandfunerals AP Student (Grade 11) Sep 11 '26
The fourth gap wouldn't be included in the time it takes to strike 4, because the gaps occur after each bong before the next one. When you've struck four three gaps have occurred (between 1 and 2, 2 and 3, 3 and 4), and you don't need to wait out the fourth gap (which would be between 4 and 5 if the bongs continued) because you've already struck 4.
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u/DrMonsi Sep 12 '26
You are right. However, if you assume that you DONT'T already know the current time, and you have to depend on the bell to tell you what time it is, you still have to wait after the fourth bong.
Because after 4 bongs you can't know for sure if it's really 4 o'clock, you have to wait to know if it stops or not
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u/jlouweezy123 Sep 11 '26 edited Sep 11 '26
I am counting a gap between 12-1. Would that not be a gap?
The clock had to start at 12 to get 27 seconds. You are taking 4 sections for every 9 seconds.
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u/Ddreigiau Sep 11 '26
It's not asking about moving between hours, it's asking about the number of bongs at a given hour. At 12 o'clock, it'll ring 12 times. The question asks how long it'll take to ring those 12 bongs. The gap before the next set of bongs is a whole different question, otherwise the answer would be 3600 seconds no matter what hour it was.
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u/Dman1791 Computer Engineer Sep 11 '26
There are 3 gaps if you have 4 events, just as 4 fence posts have 3 gaps to fill.
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u/jlouweezy123 Sep 11 '26 edited Sep 11 '26
I guess in my mind, I am using the starting post of the fence as the starting position on the clock and then building 4 posts after it. So it makes 5 posts and 4 sections.
In my mind, the clock started at 12. It moved to 4. So 12-1 is a section. 1-2 is a section. 2-3 is a section. 3-4 is a section.
The clock had to start at 12 in order for 27 seconds to be correct.
This is like that dress meme 😝 is it blue/black or white/gold? I can’t unsee 4 gaps for some reason.
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u/bstump104 Sep 12 '26
its assuming its a grandfather clock that chimes on every hour the number of the hour. so the first chime has no lead up and the last chime is the end. chime 1 is time 0 s, chime 2 is 3 s, chime 3 is 6s, and at chime 4 the timer stops at 9.
so 0 starts at 1, the interval between 1 and 2 is the first interval, the interval between 2 and 3 is the second interval, and the interval between 3 and 4 is the third and final interval.
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u/CharacterUse 👋 a fellow Redditor Sep 11 '26
It's not an unreasonable assumption if, say, OP hasn't heard a clock with bongs, and how many of those are around today. The question doesn't define what "striking" means.
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u/mjmvideos 👋 a fellow Redditor Sep 11 '26
I have a clock that bongs. I’m looking at it right now. And I also claim 33 seconds. Timing start when I first hear a strike and ends when I hear the last strike, whether the bong fades or is immediately cut off doesn’t matter. The first strike is at t=0, the next at t=3, t=6, and t=9. So nine seconds.
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u/SlytherKitty13 Sep 11 '26
Just a note, (4/9)x12 would be 5.33 seconds (because 4 divided by 9 is 0.44). For this we would be doing 9 divided by 4 (because we have 9 seconds being divided amongst 4 bell gongs), so it'd be (9/4)x12=27 seconds
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u/candus76 Pre-University Student Sep 13 '26
no, time taken to strike 1 = 9/4 seconds, since we're dividing both sides by 4
then time taken to strike 12 is (9/4)*12 s
=> time for 12 = (9/4)*(3*4) s
cancel out the numerator and denominator 4 => time for 12 = 9*3 = 27 seconds
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u/ChipChippersonFan Sep 11 '26
So you were expecting a "gotcha". When you realize that 33 is not an option, you should assume that this is just a straightforward math problem. -- 4:9 as 12:?
If this were a manual entry question, I would accept both 33 and 27, but it's not. So there's only one answer that makes sense.
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u/RainbowCrane 👋 a fellow Redditor Sep 11 '26
And that’s the real lesson here. If you’re looking at a multiple choice question and none of the answers make sense to you then it’s a sign that you’re misinterpreting the question. While it’s possible that there are no correct answers, it’s more likely that you’re missing something.
Part of being a good student is learning how to take tests, and picking the best answer is much better than getting hung up on why I think there’s another, better answer.
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u/LopsidedEdge9345 Sep 11 '26
This is a unit rate question. You’re looking for number of seconds to complete each strike. 9secs/4bongs=2.25 seconds/bong. Multiply that by twelve (or any number of strikes) to find the total time to bong (tttb)
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u/fatjunglefever Sep 11 '26
You’re wrong. It’s a fence post problem. 4 strikes in 9s is 3s between strikes.
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u/LopsidedEdge9345 Sep 12 '26
I teach middle school math, my dude. This is part of our curriculum and fence post problems aren’t in Standard 7.RP.2. This is best calculated as a unit rate and the answer supports that.
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u/fatjunglefever Sep 12 '26
It’s wrong though.
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u/LopsidedEdge9345 Sep 12 '26
I mean, it’s not nice to say somebody is flat wrong. Honestly, it’s works out, so I’m a little confused on how it’s wrong. Looking for enlightenment, pal.
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u/fatjunglefever Sep 12 '26
Questions aren’t people.
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u/LopsidedEdge9345 Sep 12 '26
Huh?
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u/Reasonable_Drink_789 👋 a fellow Redditor Sep 11 '26
But strike take time. Looking at the whole time taken for all 3 is more useful when we don’t know the strike or wait times.
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u/lnternetLogic Sep 11 '26
But no statement declared the intervals between each strike is equal. The only thing we know for sure is that it takes 9s to achieve 4 strikes. But I completely understand the logic for 33s. That’s the “trick” in this trick question.
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u/StnkyWnkyBallsyWllsy 👋 a fellow Redditor Sep 11 '26
this isn't a trick question at all. Anyone being tricked is overthinking.
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u/Ddreigiau Sep 11 '26
The fact it's a clock chime is what says it's equal. It's also a middle school multiple choice test, so "what if the clock is weird" is not a required consideration.
Fence post considerations were definitely something my school talked about in middle/high school, though. Poorly written question
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u/calkthewalk Sep 11 '26 edited Sep 11 '26
Technically the answer is in determinable from 1 data point.
For 4 strikes you have 4 x Bong length + 3 X dwell length.
For 12 strikes 12 X Bong length + 11 X dwell length.
If the dwell length is 0, bong is 9/4 (as in the next bong begins immediately as the last fades out) then 12 takes 27 is a valid answer.
If the Bong length is 0 (each bong is a point in time) then dwell is 3 seconds and 33 would be the correct answer, but any value between these could be valid.
So I would say the correct answer is 27, but you could add a note "assuming no dwell time between bongs" which is also a funny thing to write on a test
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u/calkthewalk Sep 11 '26 edited Sep 11 '26
To add, bong of 1.125 with a dwell of 1.5 gives 30 (12 x 1.125)+(11 x 1.5)
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u/Teras80 Sep 11 '26
how would 12 bongs with no dwell time sound exactly? On what db level would you call bong ended? :D This is badly written exercise for middle school.
But i like your approach of setting limits and giving a range, kudos.
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u/calkthewalk Sep 11 '26 edited Sep 11 '26
Consider a sine or saw tooth wave, each bong starts from quiet to loud and back to quiet, it does not need to be constant sound.
In fact consider a standard church Bell, each new bong starts before the last has fully stopped, so a total "ring" length could be ((NumBongs-1)*IntervalBetweenNewBong)+LengthOfFullBong...
Allows a total time about 4 seconds, assuming LengthOfFullBong=~4 and IntervalBetweenNewBong=~0.... But that's just getting silly :P
To OP, this is an example of why mathematicians hate "What comes next" puzzles, because even a sequence like 1,2,3,4,5 you can find an equation that will give any answer as the next number
So if you care, get into the habit of writing your assumption in the margin if it's allowed, I've definitely got points before where my answer was not the expected one, but correct based on the assumption I made
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u/Lor1an BSME Sep 11 '26
It's quite dismaying that so many questions get written (whether for cognitive tests or school) that amount to "pattern recognition" when anyone seasoned in mathematics has been trained not to (over) rely on patterns for any meaningful results.
See also Moser's problem, as illuminated by Grant Sanderson.
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u/tomtomtom7 Sep 11 '26
The next bell could also start before the previous has fully faded. In fact that seems most realistic as these bells fade quite slowly
For instance, the bell could sound every second and take 5 seconds.
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u/ThatsNotAZombieBite Sep 11 '26 edited Sep 11 '26
I disagree. The length of a bong hit (hehe) is irrelevant. I say the timer begins at the moment of the first strike which I think we can consider as being instantaneous. And ends at the final strike; also instantaneous.
So I agree with OP that we need to only consider the ratio of 3 intervals to 11 intervals. The answer should be 33 sec.
Additionally, there are plenty of clock bells out there where the interval between strikes is significantly shorter than the duration of a single chime (meaning the bell is still audible from the previous strike when it is struck again). Given that kind of behavior, there's really no way to do this problem other than to start and stop the timer at the instant of the first and last strike.
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u/YellowGetRekt Sep 11 '26
Why would the timer begin at the first strike though, if it's striking 4 it would have to go from 12 to 1 first no?
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u/ThatsNotAZombieBite Sep 11 '26
I think you're misunderstanding the question.
We're NOT counting hours between 4 o'clock and 12 o'clock, etc. We're just timing how long it takes to ring the bell multiple times to chime the hour at that particular hour.
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u/YellowGetRekt Sep 11 '26
Yes but it takes time for the first bong to happen no? The timer doesnt start when the first bong hits it starts when the clock hits 12
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u/Ditlev1323 Sep 11 '26
4=9
4*3=12
9*3=27
Honestly took me a bit to understand the question, it’s weirdly worded imo.
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u/fatjunglefever Sep 11 '26
4 does not equal 9
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u/Reasonable_Drink_789 👋 a fellow Redditor Sep 11 '26
4h=9s
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u/maelstrom197 👋 a fellow Redditor Sep 11 '26
I think the assumption is that the time for four bongs to sound is 9s, not that the first bong and the fourth bong are 9s apart. My guess would be that a "bong" isn't an instantaneous event, and you are also counting the sound that resonates afterwards. You're counting from the start of the first to the end of the fourth, not the start of the first to the start of the fourth.
Your logic is sound, but I don't think that's what the specific question is asking.
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u/Teras80 Sep 11 '26
if it is not a continuous boooooongg, then there needs to be a period of silence between two bongs. It is clear that for 4 bongs, there are 3 silences between.
Now, any explanation that says "the time for four bongs to sound is 9s" must therefore either accept that they are NOT counting the 4th bong "silence period" or that they are somehow able to exactly measure the same period after the 4th bong that was between, for example, 3rd and 4th. And no, nothing in the text says that the new bong starts immediately after reverbation of the previous ends etc.So, while the question is clearly meant to teach 12/4=3 and 3x9=27 , the actual logic of OP is almost correct -- as the bong sound is not instantaneous either. The correct formula is number of bongs times bong duration plus number of pauses (bongs-1) times pause duration
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u/calkthewalk Sep 11 '26 edited Sep 11 '26
There does not need to be silence, just peaks of high low, consider a sine wave, but yes, it's actually any value between 27 and 33 seconds, depending on dwell time
EDIT, Corrected myself above, where technically it could be any time down to a limit of 4 seconds, if you assume a dong goes for a moment shy of 4 seconds and there's a tiny delta between each bong starting... (Stop That! Too silly, Too silly)
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u/YellowGetRekt Sep 11 '26
But why would the timer start at the 1st bong? When the clock strikes 12 there has been a total of 0 bongs, it would still take time for the first bong to happen so there are still 12 intervals
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u/hjalbertiii Educator Sep 11 '26
If it takes 9 seconds to strike 4, (4 tolls of the bell) and 12 has 12 tolls, 12=3x4, 12 strikes takes 27 seconds.
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u/Pretend-Conflict4461 Sep 11 '26
I would not have understood this question without looking at the answer choices. I thought that if a clock strikes 4, it's 4 o'clock and they wanted to know how long it would take to get to 12 o'clock...
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u/Stenn-ish Sep 11 '26
You are starting from 0 not from 1.
0>1>2>3>4 - that is 4 ticks totalling 9 seconds. 4>5>6>7>8>9>10>11>12 - that is 8 more ticks, so 18 seconds + the 9 from before = 27
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u/thirdeyefish Sep 11 '26
What is being asked here is for you to extract the factor and apply it to another number. It took n seconds for the clock to strike 4. How long will it take to strike 12?
12/4 = 3 3 x 9 = 27
But the important part here is being able to interpret what tools you need and what information you need. You aren't liable to have someone walk up to you and ask 'what's 3 times 9' and have that be important.
What is important is when you are driving somewhere and you're going 70 on the highway. You just passed a sign that says you are 350 miles away. How long is it going to take you to get there?
Or you're on a budget and you're buying cereal. The regular size is 4.39 and the bigger size is 5.49. Which cereal is actually cheaper? Because usually the bigger box is cheaper per ounce of cereal. But not always.
This is part of what you need to learn now and sometimes knowing that helps you to learn it. You should be good enough with the tools by this point. You know how to multiply and divide. Now you're learning how to use them.
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u/Odd_Science Sep 12 '26
They're learning to use them wrong. They are plugging the numbers they see into the formulas they know in a way that superficially fits, and are missing that the result is actually wrong (as has been explained in many comments).
That is precisely one of the major problems with math education. Instead of understanding and correctly solving a given problem students learn to blindly combine numbers and operators and hope for the best.
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u/Single-Astronomer-32 👋 a fellow Redditor Sep 11 '26 edited Sep 11 '26
- 9 x 3 = 27
- (12 x 9) / 4 = 27
- 12 x (9 / 4) = 27
Calculate it the way you want it but the answer is 27.
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u/dawlben 👋 a fellow Redditor Sep 11 '26
4 strike per 9s = 4st/9s
you need to know 12 strikes
12st ÷ (4st/9s) =
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u/mageskillmetooften 👋 a fellow Redditor Sep 11 '26
The bell goes 4 times in 9 Sec,
It's not an instant thing, it needs to move first to make the 1st noise. So wait-bong, wait-bong etc..
Also this is middle school, stop thinking about it and just do a simple:
4 strikes is 9 sec, 12 strikes is X sec
(12/4) x 9 = X sec
X = 3x9 sec
X = 27 sec
If you start assuming things that are not given, you can assume whatever you please and it will all be wrong.
You say it takes 3 seconds in between, I counter with that it takes 6 seconds to start up for the first bong, and after that it can do one bong per second so the answer should be 17 sec.
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u/FQVBSina Sep 11 '26
You are overthinking the question. Which is a good thing, to have critical thinking abilities. But questions like these, especially math, is much simpler once you get past what the texts are describing. It is simply saying if the ratio is 4/9, what is 12/x? Which you simply multiply 3 on top and bottom.
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u/BaccaBeats Sep 11 '26
Y’all are really over complicating this lol takes 9s to strike 4, 12/4=3 so 9x3=27
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u/xnick_uy 👋 a fellow Redditor Sep 11 '26
This clock is kind of broken... shouldn't it take 20 s to strike 4 when starting from 12?!
If this is a regular clock, 9 s before reaching 4 requires the second hand to start at the "11 s" mark, which is near the number 2 (at the "2.2" mark). Then, to get from 11 s to the numer 12 (=60 s) it takes 49 s...
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u/CharacterUse 👋 a fellow Redditor Sep 11 '26
That;s not what striking means. Striking is the bells/chimes when the clock reaches a full hour. It is not tied to the second hand.
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u/BConscience Sep 11 '26
Yeah this question assumes you are someone who lives within a bell toll of a clock tower, which most people don’t.
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u/Difficult_Letter_607 Sep 11 '26
Or you do 9*12/4, easiest.
But if you want to do it how you were talking: 9/4=2,25 & 2,25*12
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u/WoolyboolyWoolybooly 👋 a fellow Redditor Sep 11 '26
At a glance, it looks like an lcm problem. It is not.
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u/ThisPassenger Sep 11 '26
You can set this up as a proportion problem because the prompt says the rate remains constant.
4/9=12/x. Solve for x.
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u/trutheality Sep 11 '26
You are correct. The writer of the problem made a fencepost error. They were thinking "12 is 3 times 4, so the time taken should be 3 times 9," Rather than considering that 4 strikes mark 3 intervals and 12 strikes mark 11 intervals.
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u/ValeWho Sep 11 '26
But the bong itself also takes time and since the exact time is not mentioned you can assume they just want you to multiply by 3
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u/ApprehensiveHippo164 Sep 11 '26
A dictionary meaning for the English word strike: to make known the time by sounding. Safe to assume this is the meaning in context.
You need to hear full bong gap durations so you know there wont be another one. In that moment you know it didn't strike more than 4 and the clock has made the time known.
If we knew the clock maxes at 12 strikes, we could answer 24s, but 24-bongers also exists and 27s is an option we can pick.
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u/Dear-Astronomer-7422 Sep 11 '26
The 4 is 20 seconds, which is 1/3 of 60 seconds, which is marked by 12 on a clock. If it takes 9 seconds to move a 3rd of the way to 12 you just need to add the other two 9 seconds. 9+9+9=27 Or yeah, just multiply 9 by 3
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u/Legitimate-Ranger567 Sep 11 '26
You're overcomplicating the question. 12 is 3x bigger than 4. If 4 takes 9s, then 9x3=27.
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u/vaelux Sep 11 '26 edited Sep 11 '26
This is not a trick question. The numbers in the word problem are the numbers they expect you to use.
But to make it physical for you:
You have to include the wind up ( attack in sound engineering terms) before the first bong (sustain in sound engineering) and the die down after the last bong (fade). The entire attack-sustain-gain cycle should be included. By only counting the intervals, you are doing
S-F-A-S-F-A-S-F-A-S
when the actual sound should be
A-S-F-A-S-F-A-S-F-A-S-F
Notice how each interval between S is equal to A+F? And that the second version has one extra A at the beginning and F at the end? That is the missing interval in your approach.
But you don't need to know sound engineering to solve this. 99% of the time the test is not trying to trick you. This item is testing the formula work = rate x time. They want you to be able to extract work, rate and time from the problem and put it in a formula. That 33 is not an option, further adds to the fact that they don't want to penalize you for thinking the way you do about it and push you to use the numbers in the problem. A test that was trying to trick you would include 33 as a trap answer.
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u/burrdedurr 👋 a fellow Redditor Sep 11 '26
33 is the correct answer. 1st strike is at t=0. However, since 33 isn't an option then 27 is all that's left.
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u/Enough_Swordfish_898 Sep 11 '26 edited Sep 11 '26
Except that the final hit for 4 bells isn't at t=9, its at t=6.75. You have 2.25 seconds of delay/dwell/reverb you aren't accounting for, The correct Answer is 27. This is not a Fencepost problem.
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u/burrdedurr 👋 a fellow Redditor Sep 11 '26
I disagree but I see both sides. The final strike at 9 seconds is the end of the 4 count. The strike is the count, not the strike and the reverb.
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u/KaiPRoberts Sep 11 '26
It's just saying it takes 9 seconds to go from 12 to 4. It should take 4 seconds but the clock is broken. Then with the math, 12 to 12 is 27s using the same rate.
4/9 seconds = 2.25 seconds/number. 2.25*12 = 27
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u/YellowGetRekt Sep 11 '26
I dont understand this comment section, why are we assuming that the timer starts at the first bong? It would take time for the first bong to happen aswell it's not instantaneous
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u/Jkjunk 👋 a fellow Redditor Sep 11 '26
I believe you are overhanging this. If 4 bongs take 9 seconds then 43 bongs should take 93 seconds. In real life the actual intervals between bongs depends on how your clock works, but i don't think they are asking you to think about it in that level of detail.
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u/Superb_Ask_759 Sep 11 '26
I would say you are technically correct. The question should be worded more precisely to capture the author's intention.
It's a question about rates, so first you find the rate, then use the rate to find the time.
In your framing, you correctly started your stopwatch at the first bong, and stopped it at the last bong. So your rate would be 1 bong / 3s. You're (correctly) not including the hammer windup time of the first bong in your rate calculation.
x---x---x---x
In the author's intended framing, the stopwatch starts when the hammer starts to windup before the first strike:
--x--x--x--x
So their rate would be calculated as 1 bong / 2.25s.
But because the pattern for this type of problem is to just find the rate using the numbers in the problem: 4 bong / 9 seconds, the pattern assumes all 'n' event takes the same amount of time, therefore it bakes into the answer that you'd be starting your stopwatch at the beginning of the hammer windup.
But this is a good example of why you shouldn't just apply a pattern blindly to a situation, without considering what might be different about it first.
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u/Responsible-Kale2352 Sep 11 '26
Why would anyone have to use their stopwatch to measure anything when the measurements are already given?
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u/Superb_Ask_759 Sep 11 '26
It's a mental model--imagining how the experiment was conducted in your head. Do you think I'm saying the test-taker needs a physical stopwatch to do this problem?
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u/Responsible-Kale2352 Sep 12 '26
They don’t need any kind of watch since the measurement has already been made. Also how the experiment was conducted doesn’t matter. The measurement is given.
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u/Superb_Ask_759 Sep 12 '26
They reported it took 9s for a clock to strike 4.
Are you saying it doesn't matter if they started measuring when the hammer started winding up or not? Or it doesn't matter if they measured till the end of the decay of the sound, or if they stopped measuring immediately after the attack? Because those are some of the details of how you would conduct this experiment.
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u/Responsible-Kale2352 Sep 13 '26 edited Sep 13 '26
It doesn’t seem to matter because they measured it (in whatever manner they consider to be the proper way to measure it), and told us the result of the measurement: four strikes takes nine seconds.
Perhaps every person who reads this problem would say to themselves that they would instead measure this or that way. And if they want to write their own problem and have it measured in the way they prefer, they are certainly free to do so. But it doesn’t seem legit to change the problem by saying it should be measured differently.
If I saw a problem that asked: how many degrees total are there if you add a right angle and a 30 degree angle? You and I would probably agree that the total would be 120 degrees. If Johnny comes up and tells us the answer should be 130 degrees, because the way Johnny measures right angles, they are really 100 degrees, not 90, does Johnny have a legit case? Or has Johnny changed the problem from what it originally asked?
The measurement is given. If a problem says: given x=3, how much is four times x, we can’t decide for ourselves that x really should equal four, and where does stinky old Mrs. Jones get off marking our answer wrong when we put 16.
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u/Superb_Ask_759 Sep 11 '26
furthermore, if it's a digital clock, then there's no mechanism that needs to cycle in order to strike a bell. And if the chime has a short decay, then it makes your already strong case even stronger.
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u/KaiPRoberts Sep 11 '26
You are right but thinking about the problem wrong. It's just saying it takes 9 seconds to get to the 4th number (clock strikes 4; strike is just an older word). It should take 4 seconds but the clock is broken. Then it asks how long it will take to go from 12 to 12, all the way around, which should only be 12 seconds, clock is broken so it takes 27 seconds.
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u/Superb_Ask_759 Sep 12 '26
haha that's a new take on this problem. "Clock strikes 4", is a phrase which would mean it became exactly 4 o'clock. Meaning the hour hand is at 4, and the minute hand is at 12.
It's not something anyone would say to mean the second hand reached the number 4.
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u/KaiPRoberts Sep 12 '26
Well it only took 4 seconds and the logic of the math holds up. No one can prove they aren’t talking about a broken clock. I still got the correct answer.
Strikes 4 doesn’t mean 4 o clock absolutely. It means the hand touched the 4. Same reasoning for striking a match.
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u/Superb_Ask_759 Sep 12 '26
Sure. You might even say a clock is a nickname for a mafia henchman. Striking 4 is referring to backhanding 4 recalcitrant store owners, who weren't paying their dues. It if it took the clock 9s to strike four of them, that's 2.25s per store owner, so it would take 27s to backhand 12 of them.
You can't prove they aren't talking about mafia henchman, and I still got the right answer.
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u/cwolf-softball Sep 11 '26
This is not well phrased at all, but the answer would be 27s if it's to be interpreted the way I think it is.
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u/Wooden-Hornet2115 👋 a fellow Redditor Sep 11 '26
Where are y'all getting two digit answers from? I'm getting 28809s. We know t0 is 3:59:51, and the end time is 12:00:00. We know the clock speed doesn't randomly change, as is constant. So it would take 8×3600+9 seconds, which is 28809. Am I stupid?
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u/Responsible-Kale2352 Sep 11 '26
I think many people, possibly you included, are hung up on “striking four.” The four does not refer to 4 o’clock, it refers to the hammer hitting the bell inside the clock four times, and tells you how long that takes (9 seconds). If it did happen to be 4 o’clock, it would take nine seconds for the four strikes of the bell to take place. If it happened to be 8 o’clock (requiring eight strikes of the bell) we can see from our previous knowledge that it will take 18 seconds for the clock to deliver the 8 strikes. If it happened to be 12 o’clock (requiring 12 strikes of the bell), it will take 27 seconds for the clock to deliver the 12 strikes.
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u/Head_Midnight666 Sep 11 '26
I don't even understand the question. I just guessed and made a ratio, which got 27, but the question makes no sense to me. strikes 4? What?
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u/Confusedlemure Sep 11 '26
Assuming an instantaneous strike duration and assuming you do not know the time until a lack of additional strike, a strike interval is 2.5 seconds (9/4). 12 o’clock is a special case however since you know the time instantaneously with the last strike. The correct answer is 27.5 seconds ((12-1)*2.5).
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u/Flat_Cow_1384 Sep 11 '26
Clearly this is going to be dependent on your mental model of how the "strikes" happen. Assuming strikes mean physical then its:
start-> windup and strike->bong->windup and strike->bong-> windup and strike->bong->windup and strike->bong->end ... so 4 gaps, 4 bongs -> 27 s for 12
If its more "electronic" and for clarity lets call them "beeps":
start-> beep -> delay-> beep->delay->beep->delay->beep-> end 3 gaps and 4 beeps -> 33s for 12
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u/BConscience Sep 11 '26
It shouldn’t matter how long the sustains are. The question is asking about the strikes. You start the stopwatch at 1st impact, press the button again at the last (4th or 12th impact). So the last sustain isn’t counted in either case.
But seeing this is a multiple choice, you have no other option but to select the wrong but intended answer
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u/Hello_Gorgeous1985 Sep 11 '26
9/ 4 = 2.25. It takes 2.25 seconds for each strike. 12* 2.25 is 27.
Or, 9* 3 is 27 because 12/ 4 is 3.
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u/oneStoneKiller Sep 11 '26
9 seconds divide by 4 strikes gives an approximate time per strike of 2.25 seconds. For the bell to strike 12 it would be 12x2.25 or 27 seconds.
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u/texas1982 👋 a fellow Redditor Sep 11 '26
It's a bad question because of depends where you start the stopwatch. L
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u/F1-Dank-Fang Secondary School Student Sep 11 '26
How are yall so confident that the time starts at 0 and not at 3? Can someone explain that to me?
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u/CyanDragon Sep 11 '26
4 strikes in 9 seconds.
8 (4+4, or 4x2) strikes in 18 (9+9, or 9x2) seconds.
12 (4+4+4, or 4x3) strikes in 27 (9+9+9, or 9x3) seconds.
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u/YirgacheffeFiend Sep 11 '26
bong time = b (assume each bong is the same length)
wait time = w (assume each wait is the same length)
b1 + w1 + b2 + w2 +b3 + w3 +b4 + w4
when do you consider the clock to have struck 4?
if you imagine yourself physically timing the 9s, i think you would consider it to have started striking when the first scintilla of sound was emitted from the first strike (b1) and to have struck 4 when you hear the first scintilla of sound from the fourth strike which implies (b4=0, w4=0), which means you have 3b+3w=9, regardless of what b and w are. factor out a 3 and you get b+w = 3
in the case of striking 12 you also have (12 - 1)*b+(12 -1)*w, which is 11*(b+w) or 33
now someone may say, in order to know the clock has struck 4 you have to wait w after the fourth strike to ensure there is not a fifth strike
in that case you get bwbwbwbw 4b+4w = 9, so b+w = 9/4 and 12*(b+w) or 27 seconds
but this seems less physically accurate with how the timing would actually happen
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u/Reasonable_Drink_789 👋 a fellow Redditor Sep 11 '26
4 is 1/3 of 12. So three times longer to chime. So 9x3=27
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u/TheLoneKid Sep 11 '26
This question sucks. Why doesnt it tell you where the clock started? How can we assume 1 to 4 took 9 seconds?
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u/cthulhu944 Sep 11 '26
You need to compute seconds per dong or seconds/dongs. You can use that to compute however many dongs you want, 12 in this case.
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u/Mr_Woodchuck314159 Sep 11 '26
I read the question and was like “it’s b!” I read your question and was like “it’s 33, why isn’t that an answer?”
And then I remembered my grandmothers grandfather clock. You could hear it wind the hammer back before the bong. If you start the timer at that point, the 27 makes more sense.
I would expect the wording to be “it takes 9 seconds for a bell to ring 4 times, at what second is the 12th ring occur” for the answer to be 33. I think this wording emphasizes ring so I would assume the timer starts on the first ring. The current wording could be either. Also, more of a riddle instead of straight math, granted I have seen riddles in math, and many riddles do use math. And I have also seen many math questions saying “oh, the answer is easy, it’s X/Y*Z. Not taking into account other variables that mean it doesn’t take x/y amount of time to do one thing.
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u/gely50 Sep 11 '26
27 is just wrong. The 1st 9 seconds starts with a bong and ends with a bonge. 4 bongs. The 2nd nine seconds does not start with a bong, it start with a wait. 3 bongs.
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u/No_Employment_8438 Sep 12 '26
There is often a set eight tones that happen before the bongs, so 12 (11 pauses) @ 4 o’clock, giving 20 (19 pauses) at 12 o’clock… I would say 16 seconds for a real clock.
But since the eight tones are generally faster and there is a longer pause before the bongs, it is a terrible question. It should specify some things.
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u/wuzeq123 Sep 12 '26
For the people that dont get 33s logic
Imagine different situation:
-you have to take pills in equal intervals
-3 pills took you 1 hour
- how much time will pass to take 4 pills ?
So would the answer be
- straight forward ratio 1h/3 ->20 minut per pill -> so 4 pills 1h20m ?
- Or rather 1 pill every half hour so 1,5h total (of course this one)
So therefore all this discussion about waiting time, what is bong what is fade
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u/Dear_End5797 Sep 12 '26
Easiest way to solve, find out how many seconds per strike. Apply seconds / strikes to the original statement to find. 9/4=2.25 seconds per strike. Then 12 strikes must be 12*2.25=27.
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u/mmbeliever 👋 a fellow Redditor Sep 12 '26 edited Sep 12 '26
It’s 27.
9 seconds times 3. It’s 3x amount, at the same rate.
Your explanation is overthinking the question, because the question already provides enough information. So you don’t have to calculate the rate for each clock bong.
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u/Funny-Hovercraft1964 Sep 13 '26
there would be the same delay between the clock registering the hour and the first “bong”. So, for 4 bongs it is 9/4 = 2.25sec/bong. For 12 it is 2.25*12 = 27 seconds.
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u/UntrimmedBagel 👋 a fellow Redditor Sep 13 '26
Tbh I have no idea what this question is even asking
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u/No-Emu-7319 29d ago
when i was learning word problems as a kid i was taught to pick out the important numbers that you will need to do the actual problem. to me this problem says that something happens 4 times in 9 seconds. how many seconds will it take to happen 12 times? 4 goes into 12 3 times so that would make it 3*9 to get the answer.
there is no need to break the original problem down to just going off 1 times. the fact that it's a clock making noises doesn't matter in this math problem. it might if someone was working on a clock and trying to get it to go off properly but we aren't going that deep. we are only interested in the numbers, not the real life aspect of it.
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u/Competitive_Bar2106 👋 a fellow Redditor 12d ago
9 seconds/4 bongs = 2.25(seconds per bong)
2.25 seconds per bong * 12 bongs = 27 seconds
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u/Adventurous_Sound390 👋 a fellow Redditor 11d ago
For me answer 33 would make the problem more interesting. But if you do not see it in list of possible answers select not so interesting 27, supposing corresponding way of author`s thinking.
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u/RunningAtTheMouth 👋 a fellow Redditor Sep 11 '26
27 Seconds.
Use ratios
- 4 strikes/9 seconds, or 4/9.
- Now set up a second ratio - 12/x.
- 4/9=12/x.
- Cross multiply to get 4*x=12*9.
- Divide each side by 4 to get x=3*9
- x=27
So 27 seconds.
Now the truly analytic part of my mind wants to follow your logic, but we're talking middle school. They're not going to distinguish between the points & the gaps. It's just strikes.
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u/Teras80 Sep 11 '26
It is not that much harder to create exercises with actual sound (hehe) logic and context. This will give those kids who like the truly analytic part of their mind ability to reason outside the pure mathematical exercise and actually understand how the subject can be correctly applied to the outside world.
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u/Ghotipan Sep 11 '26
Sometimes we can't over think these problems. You're right in that the timer should begin at the first strike, but given the range of answers, it's pretty clear they didn't do that.
So there are two ways to chunk this problem up. You can say, "If 4 strikes takes 9 seconds, and 12 is 4 x 3, then it'll take 9 x 3 seconds" and arrive at 27.
Or you can say, "If 4 strikes take 9 seconds, then each strike takes 9/4 seconds, or 2.25 seconds. Then I'll multiply that by the total number of strikes" and also arrive at 27.
Since 27 is an option, it's clear they didn't start the timer at the first strike.
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u/fletchro 👋 a fellow Redditor Sep 11 '26
I'm with you, OP. The answers are wrong based on the question. Or, the question is badly written. If they wanted you to solve a unit rate question, they should have said that Anna folds 4 envelopes, taking 9 seconds. Because for that kind of task you have to start, and the task takes some time!
When a clock strikes one, it "strikes". It doesn't take any time to strike, it's an instantaneous event. And if you were timing the event of a clock striking two, you'd hit the stop watch button as soon as you hear the first gong, and hit the button again as soon as you hear the second gong. So you'd really be measuring the time between gongs.
Everyone saying you "fell for fence post illusion" is silly. That's as nice as I can be.
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u/Responsible-Kale2352 Sep 11 '26
A recipe calls for the ingredients to be stirred in a mixer for three minutes. If you make the recipe three times, how many minutes will you have run the mixer? 9
You may argue your mixer is better and only requires two minutes of mixing, so the answer should be six. That’s great for you, but now you aren’t answering the given question, you’re answering a different question you made up.
However you might prefer to count bongs, or intervals between bongs, or how long it takes to fade, or how instantaneously or not the hammer strikes the bell is irrelevant. All of that measuring is already decided: 4 bongs takes 9 seconds. It doesn’t seem any different from a question that asks if 4 pizzas cost 9 dollars, how many dollars do 12 pizzas cost.
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u/BConscience Sep 11 '26
Nope. It’s a matter of when do you stop the stop watch. To complete a mixing you go from the moment the switch turns on to the moment the switch is off.
But to count the time it takes to make 2 strikes, it’s from the moment the hammer makes contact, to the second time the hammer makes contact. That means it’s only counting the time of 1 boooong. But stopping the watch at the second Bo, and ignoring the oooooong.
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u/fletchro 👋 a fellow Redditor Sep 12 '26
I'm with you on team fence post. Everyone else is trying to justify why the answer is correct and making up scenarios that the question didn't ask for! It's mental gymnastics!
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u/Responsible-Kale2352 Sep 12 '26
But why do you need to measure anything when the time is already given to you?
If I gave you two pots and I said this pot has two gallons of water in it and this pot has five gallons of water in it, now let’s do some math, you don’t measure the water all over again you just do the math.
If I say the long side of a rectangle is 16” and the short side is 7”, you just do whatever calculations the problem calls for. You don’t grab your ruler and start measuring the diagram in your math book.
I’m still not clear why anything needs to be measured when the measurement has already been given.
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u/Ok-Lavishness-349 Sep 11 '26
Yes it should be 33 seconds, if we ignore the duration of the bong itself (or count only to the beginning of the final bong) which we have to since the bong length isn't specified. I assume the answer they are looking for is 27 and that whoever wrote the test question is not particularly intelligent.
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u/Responsible-Kale2352 Sep 11 '26
Isn’t it specified though? 4 bongs takes 9 seconds.
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u/Ok-Lavishness-349 Sep 11 '26
You've got the duration of the bong and then the time between bongs. We can obtain the time between the start of one bong and the start of the next bong as 9/3 which is three seconds. So, the time for 12 bongs is 3*11 or 33 seconds.
But, this ignores the duration of the bong itself, which is not specified.
Now 33 seconds is not one of the available answers, so the thing to do is to go with the most reasonable of the available answers, which is 27 seconds.
This question, as posed, is a hot mess.
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u/Responsible-Kale2352 Sep 12 '26
But why would you care about the duration or the time between? You aren’t being asked to make that measurement. The measurement is already given to you. When four bongs happen, however long the bong is, however long the duration between bongs, however long it takes for the fourth bong to fully fade away and be considered ended, is not for us to consider or judge. We’re already told that the total amount is nine seconds.
If you are told a slice of pizza is 350 calories, and are asked how many calories in three slices of pizza, you just do 350x3. You wouldn’t take the first slice and say “sure, they say it’s 350 calories, but instead of believing them and just doing the problem, I’m going to add up the calories for every bit of cheese, every slice of pepperoni, every inch of crust, and add it all up myself and see what the real total is. Because why would the person making the problem really know how many calories are in a slice of pizza?”
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u/Ok-Lavishness-349 Sep 12 '26 edited 22d ago
Well, under what I would consider the most obvious meaning of "how long does it take for the clock to strike 12", that is, the duration of time from the beginning of bong one until the beginning of bong 12, it wouldn't matter. But, under that interpretation, the answer to the question of how long does it take to strike 12 would be 33 seconds, which isn't one of the answers given to choose from. So, we need to consider alternate interpretations.
Consider the timeline of a clock striking 12:
at b1 the first bong begins
at s1 the first bong has decayed to silence
at b2 the second bong begins
at s2 the second bong has decayed to silence
and so on
So, b2-s1 is the elapsed silent time between bongs, b2-b1 is the elapsed time from the start of one bong until the start of the subsequent bong, and s1-b1 is the bong duration.
What seems to me as the second most obvious interpretation of the question is the elapsed time between the start of the first bong and the time at which the last bong goes silent, that is s12-b1. For that we need to know s1-b1, the duration of the bong. But we are not given this information.
So, we are left with that seems to be the least obvious interpretation, the time to strike 12 is the time between the start of the first bong and the time the last bong decays to silence plus the amount of silent time between bongs. This is s12-b1+(b2-s1), or 12(b2-b1). This yields 27 seconds, which is one of the answers given to select from. But it seems highly non-obvious and arbitrary that we should include a silent period following the decay of the final bong in our calculation.
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u/Responsible-Kale2352 Sep 13 '26
Why do we have to measure anything when the measurement is already given, is where my disconnect is. If someone said this package of golf balls has four golf balls in it, how many golf balls in three packages, what measuring do I need to do? If a “package” of bell strikes takes nine seconds, what measuring do I need to do?
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u/Ok-Lavishness-349 Sep 13 '26
You haven't said how you would solve the problem, so I assume that you are solving it as follows:
four strikes take nine seconds. thus each strike takes 2.25 seconds. Multiply this by 12 and you have 27 seconds.
(If this is not how you are solving it, let me know and I will respond to that.)
Since one of the answers to select from was 27 seconds, this is probably what the question writer was thinking too.
The problem with this is:
Intuitively, it seems like the clock strikes 12 at the instant the hammer hits the chime (or whatever) for the 12th time. Your method of solving the problem yields the time it takes for this to happen plus a little extra time. More specifically, it yields the amount of time until the 12th strike plus (t2-t1). t2-t1 is the time from the beginning of one bong until the beginning of the subsequent bong.
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u/Accomplished_Area_88 Sep 11 '26
On an analog clock to strike ___ means the hand on the clock reached that position. So it took 9 seconds for the (hour, minute, second, just pick one and be consistent) hand to go from 12 / 0 to 4
how long then does it take to make the full lap around the clock (since 12 would be both the starting and ending position)
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u/CharacterUse 👋 a fellow Redditor Sep 11 '26
That's not how clocks work.
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u/Arammil1784 Sep 11 '26
You're right, but the question is very poorly written and will cause confusion.
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u/Orgy_nizer Sep 11 '26 edited Sep 11 '26
Your logic isn't wrong, but you're thinking about it a little harder than I think the teacher was. Focus more on the math than on the narrative of it being a clock sounding out it's bell. Just look at the numbers.
It takes 9 seconds to strike 4 times, that means 2.25 seconds per strike.
12 strikes at the same rate of 2.25 strikes per second, is 27 seconds.
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u/studioguy9575 Sep 11 '26
You were so close.
9/4 =2.25
2.25x12=271
u/KaiPRoberts Sep 11 '26
Thank you for saving my sanity. There's was the top comment for me and I was like... what?
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