If the glass was 100% full, then perhaps. But the math explains that he drank 1/4 of the total amount of water, and then 1/2 of the total amount of water was gone 30 minutes later. All in-depth considerations of physical processes aside, if we assume that 1/4 of the 3/4 of water remaining in the glass has frozen in those 30 minutes, it definitely had room to expand. However, if the glass tipped over enough to spill 1/4 of the water, it is very unlikely that no more water was spilled. Either the glass would have needed to be caught by something, halting its descent at an angle, or that it managed to tip back in the opposite direction and correct itself. Neither have a real chance of happening.
And the way the riddle, itself, is worded practically begs the answer I provided. The quantitative statements (1/4, 1/2, 30 minutes) only serve to convey the peculiarity of the situation, and, coincidentally, disprove the most basic solutions like the supposed answer to this riddle proposed by Wake. The more important statements are that the glass was placed in the sun, and that the water did not evaporate. When taken literally, they are meant to discourage the person solving the riddle, but, when examined more closely, they provide the most useful information.
What do I mean? The glass was placed in the sun. That cues the mind to believe it must be a nice, hot, bright sunny day, which then leads to the obvious answer that the water could have evaporated, which was immediately rebuked by the last sentence (so obviously both of these sentences were intended to be of great importance by the person who designed the riddle...I hope, anyway). In reality, saying the water didn't evaporate narrows down the list of plausible solutions by quite a bit. And, as a matter of fact Delgado, I also considered the idea you just brought, which is what set me on track to finding my answer. It comes from sheer irony. He wasn't drinking the water on a hot day. He was drinking it outside in a cold climate, and it partially froze in the 30 minutes while he was away.
Sound good?
_________________ Taught by Tracer
|