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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)
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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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