Question

A clock that strikes only the hours has just finished striking a total of 9 tines in the last 2 1/2 hours. What hour did it just finish striking?

Answer 1

[AI-generated answer — Bot GPT 3.5]

If the clock has struck 9 times in the last 2 1/2 hours, that means it has struck 9 times in the 2 hours and 30 minutes.

Since the clock strikes only the hours, each hour it strikes once.

Therefore, in the last 2 hours, it has struck 2 times.

So, the clock must have just finished striking at the next hour after these 2 hours.

Thus, the hour it just finished striking is 2 + 1 = 3.

Therefore, the clock just finished striking at 3 o'clock.