There are two walls, initially 10 m apart, moving toward each other each at 1 m/s. As they begin moving, a fly on the first wall starts flying toward the second wall at 10 m/s. As it hits the second wall, it instantly changes direction and flies to the other wall. It keeps on doing that until it gets squashed. How much distance does the fly cover?
2007-05-28 11:39:36 · 5 answers · asked by Dr D 7 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Mathematics
The fly covers 50 meters. It is tempting to focus on the fly and calculate from it, but the easiest thing here is to calculate how long it would take to the walls to touch, in this case five seconds. Since the fly moved at ten meters per second, we know the fly moved a total of fifty meters.
2007-05-28 11:46:40 · answer #1 · answered by epistemology 5 · 2⤊ 0⤋
The walls will take 5 seconds to meet.
Since the fly never stopes during that time and turns around instantly,
the fly flies for 5 seconds at 10 m/s = 50 meters!
=]
cute question! Tricky!
2007-05-28 11:45:08 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
The walls will take 5 seconds to meet.
Thus the fly will have flown 10*5 = 50 meters
2007-05-28 11:45:52 · answer #3 · answered by ironduke8159 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Since the walls will meet in 5 seconds (closing at 2m/s relative to each other) and the fly flies at 10m/s, the fly flies 50m and then gets squashed.
2007-05-28 11:43:52 · answer #4 · answered by singlepun 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
50m until squished...
12 flys were hurt to find this answer LOL!
2007-05-28 12:13:08 · answer #5 · answered by thomas 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋