The kidnapping
A group of kidnappers descended upon a Bar Association meeting and took all the lawyers present hostage.
After moving the lawyers (and themselves) to a secure location, the kidnappers contacted police and threatened to release one lawyer every 15 minutes until their demands were met.
2 hours and 24 minutes later, police agreed to their demands.
Assuming the kidnappers followed through on their threat, how many lawyers did they inflict on the population before getting their demands met?
The answer is 9.
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One lawyer is released every 15 minutes. That's 4 per hour. So after 2 hours, 8 lawyers had been inflicted upon the population.
At the 2:15 mark, one additional lawyer was released. That brings the total to 9. The next one would have been released at the 2:30 mark, but before then the kidnappers got their demands agreed to.