There are two candles of equal lengths and of different thickness. The thicker one lasts of six hours. The thinner 2 hours less than the thicker one. Ramesh lights the two candles at the same time. When he went to bed he saw the thicker one is twice the length of the thinner one. How long ago did Ramesh light the two candles?
3 hours ago.
Thin candle melts 3/4 in 3 hours leaving 1/4
Where as in the same time thick candle melts 3/6 leaving 3/6 which is 1/2. Now thick candle is exactly twice than the thin candle.
Or via modeling:
We need to find time at which the length of the thin candle is half the thick candle. Let x be the time. Thin candle melts at 1/4 an hour and thick candle melts at 1/6 an hour. In x hours they melt at x/4 and x/6 respectively. What’s left will be 1 – x/4 and 1 – x/6. We need to find x at which :
2 * (1 – (x/4)) = 1 – (x/6)
This equation results in x = 3