A Cornell Professor's FIRST Word Problem @WrathofMath

Uploaded April 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago

In Cornell professor Steven Strogatz's book The Joy of X, he describes the first word problem he remembers being given. He was embarrassed to get it wrong, but a lot of people do get this type of problem wrong! A hot faucet fills a tub in 60 minutes and a cold faucet fills the tub in 30 minutes. How long would it take the faucets to fill the tub if they ran simultaneously? We discuss errors and solutions in this video. #maths #mathproblems #mathchallenge

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0:00 Intro
0:47 Problem
1:29 Getting it Wrong
3:27 Intuition
4:45 Solution
6:08 Strogatz's Solution
8:02 Conclusion

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$the math teacher can’t figure it out This seemingly simple geometry problem got a lot of traffic recently on r/askmath, as many tried to solve it, got it wrong, and got stuck. The OP’s wife, a math teacher, was unable to solve it - and this time that’s not because the teacher is incompetent but the problem is simply much harder than it looks. We’ll solve this variation of Langley’s Adventitious Angles using some clever geometric constructions and basic properties of triangles. #geometryproblems #mathchallenge Join Wrath of Math to get exclusive videos, lecture notes, and more: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCyEKvaxi8mt9FMc62MHcliw/join Check out the coolest math clothes in the world: https://mathshion.com/ More Math Chats: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLztBpqftvzxXQDmPmSOwXSU9vOHgty1RO Outro music: https://youtube.com/shorts/tfifiSdTZRg Follow Wrath of Math on... ● Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wrathofmathedu ● TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@wrathofmathedu ● X: https://x.com/wrathofmathedu SOURCES https://www.reddit.com/r/askmath/comments/1lq21qv/my_wife_math_teacher_cannot_figure_this_out https://www.reddit.com/r/askmath/comments/1lqy3vj/comment/n18lc4a/?context=3 https://mathwithbaddrawings.com/2015/06/10/trick-or-technique/ Tripp, Colin. “Adventitious Angles.” The Mathematical Gazette, vol. 59, no. 408, 1975, pp. 98–106. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/3616644. https://www.duckware.com/tech/worldshardesteasygeometryproblem.html Adventitious angles problem: the lonely fractional derived angle by Yong Kong and Shaowei Zhang MUSIC Special World 8 (Crown) - Super Mario 3D Land Athletic BGM (Super Mario World 2 - Yoshis Island) - Mario Kart World Musee Champignon Aquatic Ambience Torigoth - Night Ordon Village Dire Dire Docks Mario 64 End Theme 0:00 Intro 1:09 Hogwash Montage 3:19 Whats the Deal? 5:33 Adventitious 7:25 Solution 19:10 Conclusion$

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