Speed & Distance Puzzles 19- MORE BICYCLING
Referring to the last puzzle, let us now consider the case where a third rider
has to share the same bicycle. As a matter of fact, I understand that Anderson
and Brown have taken a man named Carter into partnership, and the position
today is this: Anderson, Brown, and Carter walk respectively four, five, and
three miles per hour, and ride respectively ten, eight, and twelve miles per
hour. How are they to use that single bicycle so that all shall complete
the twenty miles' journey at the same time?- A SIDECAR PROBLEM
Atkins, Baldwin, and Clarke had to go on a journey of fifty-two miles
across country. Atkins had a motorcycle with a sidecar for one passenger.
How was he to take one of his companions a certain distance, drop him on the
road to walk the remainder of the way, and return to pick up the second friend,
who, starting at the same time, was already walking on the road, so that they
should all arrive at their destination at exactly the same time?
The motorcycle could do twenty miles an hour, Baldwin could walk five
miles an hour, and Clarke could walk four miles an hour. Of course, each went
at his proper speed throughout and there was no waiting.
I might have complicated the problem by giving more passengers, but
I have purposely made it easy, and all the distances are an exact number of
miles-without fractions.- THE DISPATCH RIDER
If an army forty miles long advances forty miles while a dispatch rider
gallops from the rear to the front, delivers a dispatch to the commanding
general, and returns to the rear, how far has he to travel?
- THE TWO TRAINS
Two railway trains, one four hundred feet long and the other two hundred
feet long, ran on parallel rails. It was found that when they went in opposite
directions they passed each other in five seconds, but when they ran in the same
direction the faster train would pass the other in fifteen seconds. A curious