Calculating Frosty’s weight with fragments of high school geometry
Two hibernal Prometheans, Tristan and Layla, fashion a golem viz Frosty the Snowman.
Frosty is composed of three perfect spheres of homogeneous snow. A bamboo pole is placed tangent to all three perfect spheres of snow.
The top sphere has a radius of 8 units and a weight of precisely 128.5074331 troy ounces. The bottom sphere has a weight of exactly 1463.77998 troy ounces.
Assume each sphere is balanced tangent to its adjacent sphere at a single point. The weights of Frosty’s stick arms, carrot nose, old felt hat and coal parts are all negligible.
Find the weight of Frosty the Snowman.
Send the correct answer to [email protected] for a chance to win a Tucker’s gift card.
The correct answer to last week’s puzzle was V = 886.75352 cubic centimeters.
Jeff Smith is a former Math teacher and a retired US Navy Lieutenant Commander. Reach him at [email protected].
