40 000 divided by 2 is 20 000.
Rope around the earth add 3 feet.
Suppose you tie a rope around the earth at the equator circumference approx.
From there it s not hard to believe that adding 3 feet to a rope around the actual earth would raise it almost 6 inches.
Imagine putting the rope around the earth tightly.
15cm that s how far off the ground we re lifting the string remember out of 6 370km is close.
As a circle of radius r has a circumference of 2 π r regardless of the value of c.
In fact this brain teaser requires neither an exact measurement of the earth s circumference which in fact varies by many kilometers depending on which circumference you measure nor even an assumption that the earth has a circular cross sect.
Assume he has just the right length that makes this work without any slack.
You have a piece of rope that just fits around the earth.
Suppose poindexter takes a very long rope and wraps it around the equator of the earth.
Suppose you tie a rope tightly around the earth s equator.
Yes i know how that works out but it does not seem logical to think that there would only be 6 feet of rope needed to go all around the so called globe world being 1 foot off of the ground evenly all around.
All around the earth the rope is raised up uniformly as high as is possible to make it tight again.
Divide again by pi to get the earth s radius 6 370km.
For h 1 metre additional length of rope required.
If you put 1 metre high sticks.
Now raise it just one foot from the floor where you stand.
Let c be the earth s circumference r be its radius c be the added string length and r be the added radius.
Let s say you pull the rope as tight as it will go and then add back 6 feet of slack before tying the knot.
From the diagram it s pretty clear it s one foot.
C add 2 π h 2 3 14 1 6 28 metres.
You add an extra 3 feet to the length.
If the extra rope is distributed evenly around the globe will there be enough space between the rope and the surface of the earth for a worm to crawl under.