Subj:.....The
Yacht Race (S610)
From the book
"Mathematical Puzzles of Sam Loyd"
Edited by Martin Gardner
From: Dover Publications in 1959
How long did it take
the yacht to win?
In the sketch above,
the two yachts are on the first leg
of a race on a triangular
course from buoy A to B to C,
then back to A again.
Three landlubbers
on the winning yacht tried to keep a
record of the boat's
speed, but all three became violently
seasick and their
records suffered accordingly. Smith
observed that the
yacht sailed the first three-quarters
of the race in three
and a half hours. Jones noted only
that it did the final
three-quarters in four and a half
hours. Brown
was so anxious to get back on land that the
best he could do
was observe that the middle leg of the
race (from buoy B
to C) took ten minutes longer than the
first leg.
Assuming that the
buoys mark an equilateral triangle and
that the boat had
a constant speed on each leg, can you
tell how long it
took the yacht to finish the race? |
.
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