37 replies to this topic

[Tomk]

A spider is in a rectangular room that is thirty feet long, twelve feet wide, and twelve feet high. She is perched on an end wall one foot from the ceiling and six feet from each wall. She wants to reach a point on the other end wall one foot from the floor and six feet from each wall.
If she takes the shortest route to her destination, how far does she walk?

[oldman960]

I would say about 43.12'. However if she was capable of firing a 30'=+ silk tightrope and walked along it, it would be 31.62'.

[Tomk]

She does no web slinging in this case. Not a bad answer... in fact it is the best answer given to this question so far. Unfortunately, that is farther than she wants to walk. I believe there is a shorter route.

[oldman960]

How about this. 1' up, 30' across, use a web (or is that a line) to drop down to where she wants to be. Total walk = 31'.

[Tomk]

No webbing is used in any way on this trip.

[terry1966]

42 foot. 11 foot down, 30 foot across, 1 foot up.

[Tomk]

She is much happier with your number than the one provided by oldman960, but that is still farther than she wants to walk.

[terry1966]

31foot she jumps down the first 11 foot, and then walks the 30 foot across and 1 foot up.

[Tomk]

Unfortunately, when she jumped that 11 feet - she impacted the ground so hard that she broke all 4 legs off of one side. She is valiantly trying to continue across the floor but is walking in circles. She has walked 50 feet so far but has only managed to get three inches closed to where she is wanting to be. It's not looking good for her.

[terry1966]

41 foot. ok she walks down 10 foot jumps the last foot and walks across 30 foot and up 1 foot. or 40 foot and jumps 2 feet. 39 foot jumps 3 feet etc, etc

[Tomk]

No jumping.

It's a simple question.

If she takes the shortest route to her destination, how far does she walk?

Walk. No jumping. No flying. No swinging. No dropping. No bouncing. No sliding. No hitchhiking. No teleporting. Walk the shortest distance between point A and point B.

[jeffce]

One step at a time?

[terry1966]

trick question? spiders don't walk they crawl? so i guess the answer is she walks zero feet. but crawls 42foot.

Edited by terry1966, 11 September 2012 - 09:58 PM.

[Tomk]

spiders don't walk they crawl?

Really?? Based on what criteria?

Definition of crawl: to move in a prone position with the body resting on or close to the ground, as a worm or caterpillar, or on the hands and knees

A spider can't move like a worm or caterpillar... and has no hands or knees. I don't think they crawl.

[terry1966]

if i had a ruler i'd draw a square 12x54 and mark the points and see if walking a diagonal line is shorter than straight down across and up, but i don't so can't measure anything.