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Here is this week's problem. It isn't something which can't be solved with mathematics you already know.

Once again, talking about the problem in the forum is strongly encouraged, and googling the answer is strongly discouraged.

Without further ado:

A Ferrari is traveling at 30 miles per hour on a head-on collision course with a Maserati, which is being driven at a leisurely 20 miles per hour. When the two cars are exactly 50 miles apart, a very fast fly leaves the front fender of the Ferrari and travels towards the Maserati at 100 miles per hour. When it reaches the Maserati, it instantly reverses direction and flies back to the Ferrari and continues winging back and forth between the rapidly approaching cars. At the moment the two cars collide, what is the total distance the fly has covered?

"If I die of a heart attack eating bacon, I'll be a happy man." -My father

Come on. Nobody wants to even make a crack at it?

I will give you guys a hint. If you think about it in a particular way, this problem becomes a whole lot simpler.

"If I die of a heart attack eating bacon, I'll be a happy man." -My father

Well, since you ask so nicely. :-)

The cars are 50 miles apart and moving at 20mph+30mph=50mph towards each other. This means we have exactly 1 hour before they collide.

The fly moves at 100mph for this time, so it will cover 100mph * 1h = 100 miles.

Did I win the cup? :-)

"*sigh* Some men are really hard to manipulate!" - Orchid

This post was edited by null on Mar 14, 2006.

Bah I knew I made it too easy. You either pull out your hair thinking the wrong way to solve it, or you solve in 2 minutes.

Yes, you win.

"If I die of a heart attack eating bacon, I'll be a happy man." -My father