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From: judith@proper.UUCP (Judith Abrahms)
Newsgroups: net.math
Subject: Re: a piece of folk-lore
Message-ID: <320@proper.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 23-Sep-85 06:02:21 EDT
Article-I.D.: proper.320
Posted: Mon Sep 23 06:02:21 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 26-Sep-85 07:07:49 EDT
References: <>
Reply-To: judith@proper.UUCP (judith)
Distribution: net
Organization: Proper UNIX, Oakland CA
Lines: 42
In article <> ian@psuvax1.UUCP (Ian Parberry) writes:
>Great Moments in the History of Mathematics:
>
...
>
> "A cyclist is exactly x miles from home. She rides home at a constant
> speed of c miles per hour. At the exact instant she starts out, a fly
> leaves the front wheel of her bicycle at i miles per hour (i>c),
> heading towards home. When it reaches there, it turns around (in zero time)
> and heads back to the bicycle. It flies backwards and forwards at the
> same speed between the bicycle and the house until the rider gets home.
> How far does the fly fly?"
>
> The Master replies, without pause, "ix/c miles". Deflated, the student
> observes that "a surprising number of people miss the easy solution, and
> try to sum the infinite series of distances flown by the fly". To which
> the puzzled mathematician replies, "But I did!".
>
>Can anyone answer the following questions:
>1. Is this a true story, or just a piece of mathematical folk-lore?
It was told to me as a true story.
>3. Who was the great mathematician? (I've forgotten).
I was told it was Steinmetz, but I've been shot down on my other Steinmetz
story, so don't take my word for it.
>6. How was the original problem stated? For example, every time I've heard the
> fly-and-bicycle problem, the person telling it has used different values
> for i, c and x.
The way I heard it, there were two trains on a collision course, and a bee
flying back & forth between them until they met and pureed it. I don't
remember the exact values stated.
>Ian Parberry.
>!psuvax1!ian
>Dept. of Computer Science, Penn. State University.
Judith Abrahms
{ucbvax,ihnp4}!dual!proper!judith
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A man who is a genius and doesn't know it probably isn't. -- Lec
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