Subcontinental divide

A word problem for you, dear readers.

You are on Harlem Avenue in Chicago driving south near Ogden Avenue going approximately 35 MPH. You’re sipping (rather enjoying) a piping-hot venti half-decaf no-fat latte with a shot of sugar-free hazelnut when a billboard for a rock station depicting a sweaty lady in a tank top grabs your eye. You fail to see the car in front of you slow to make a left turn onto 39th street. You look up just in time, slam your brakes, crushing your latte between your sternum and the steering column, spilling hot liquid (no fat, though!) into your lap which causes you to recoil and inexplicably hit the gas again. As you look up again (crotch still ablaze) you swerve the car right (west) to avoid hitting the damn car that still has not turned left. You nail the curb, pop up briefly, and land squarely on a fire hydrant. Which explodes in two directions (roughly straight up and west-southwest) spewing a great geyser of water onto Harlem Avenue at a rate of approximately four liters per second.

Will the water that is dumping into the road end up in Lake Michigan or in the Gulf of Mexico?

A few tracks from the iTunes store for whomever gets this right first.

(Thanks for this one, Dad!)

UPDATE: Here’s the solution.

One response to “Subcontinental divide”

  1. Mickey says :

    No. 1: Harlem near Ogden is not in Chicago. It’s more like Riverside and Berwyn. Nearby are Forest View and Lyons. A bit of Chicago is three miles or so to the south.
    No. 2 depends on which way the Chicago Sanitary Drainage and Ship Canal is flowing — into Lake Michigan or down the Illinois toward the Gulf. You have to know this before you get an answer.
    Mick