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That's just the first question.

The follow-on is, if you add 6 feet and put your finger under the rope and pull up until it's tight again, how far have you raised your finger? 1ft? 10ft? 100ft? 1000 miles?

The answer to that is very difficult. There are several approaches.

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Yes, but that's still a geometry problem. Don't get me wrong, geometry was my favorite branch of mathematics in school, but I don't see how this is relevant for most software engineering jobs.

I guess this type of question might serve the purpose of finding like-minded people with similar interests (in your case geometry or puzzles) but it might alienate others.

Most folks require calculus to solve it. Give it a try!

great, now I need a new branch of math to be able to continue, lol!

I solved a very similar problem (in the context of a pathfinding and obstacle avoidance sim) 25 years ago, and I can probably describe the thought process and geometry in very digestible terms, but if I had to code it in a whiteboard I'd likely fail.

Same here. I don't code with somebody looking over my shoulder. Can't perform that way. :)

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