Meeting of Ships
Daily at noon, a ship departs from Le Havre bound for New York and conversely, another ship leaves New York bound for Le Havre. The crossing takes 7 days and 7 nights. During the passage to New York, how many Le Havre ships will the New York-bound vessel meet, with today as its date of departure?
Labels: logic
posted by Zaux at
10:59 AM
13 Comments:
8 seems too easy,so i'll say 0 (or 42).
Answer is neither 8 nor 42 ...
This post has been removed by the author.
The ships from Le Havre, France should be easily able to steer around the path of the vessel from the USA thus never meeting, so if they do so the answer is 0.
If, however, you assume that they follow the same path then:
-The vessel from New york leaves at noon, 1 vessel leaves from Le Havre
1 night + 1day-> noon again
1 vessel leaves from Le Havre
Repeat six times
1 night + 1day-> noon again
destination reached, don't have to cross the vessel departing at noon
Time total= 7N + 7D
Vessels crossed= 7
Complication:
If you were to take the N+D to be New York nights and days then the answer would be 8 since France is 5 hours ahead of New York, thus an extra vessel would be released when the vessel arrives in France at 5PM New York time.
Answer:
0 if they steer around (big ocean)
7 if they cross paths, and it is nights and days for the ship
8 if they cross paths, and it is New York nights and days
Cam
I haven't checked, but I think it might be 15 meetings. I'm assuming the first ship met had set off 7 1/2 days before the American ship set off . I haven't dealt with the presumed 5 hour time zone difference 'cos I'm stoned.
Chris .... heh heh ... pretty good analysis for a stoned dude.
Nice one Chris. I hadn't thought of boats being released before T=0. But I guess that's the whole crux of the puzzle.
Cam
I can bareley add or subtract at the moment, but am sticking with the 15 days and believe the time zone difference doesn't matter as the American ship would arrive in France at midnight, so there is a 7 hour "safety" margin.
... I meant 15 days worth of ships are met => 15 ships.
Mind definitely struggling now. First boat met must have set of 7 days earlier, not 7 1/2. So 14 1/2 days worth of ships = 14 ships met. Again the 5 hour time difference doesn't matter.
I'm still not happy that I'm dealing with the time zone and/or day/night interpretation correctly.
My brain is melting.
guys read the question a little bit more closely and you will find your answer. which is zero.
Well spotted. However, I think that is an unintentional error in the wording.
BTW Le Havre is 6 hours ahead of New York.
Also If 7 days and 7 nights is from the point of view of the ship, then the ships arrive at midnight local time. In "normal time" a NY bound ship takes 7.75 days and a LH bound ship takes 7.25 days to cross (1 day = 24 hours).
I'm too knackered to finish it off.
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