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Jan. 17, 2007
The Cyclists and the Fly
Two cyclists, 20 miles apart, take off at noon and begin racing toward each other. The instant they start, a fly on the handlebar of one bike takes off toward the other bike. When it reaches the other cyclist, it immediately reverses direction and flies back and forth until the two racers meet. If each bike has a constant speed of 10 miles per hour and the fly has a constant speed of 15 miles per hour, how far did the fly fly?
Adapted from Visual Brainstorms, a brainteaser game from ThinkFun (www.thinkfun.com).
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The cyclists meet after traveling 1 hour.
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The fly flies 15 miles.
If the cyclists start 20 miles apart and they each are traveling at 10 miles per hour, they will meet in exactly 1 hour. Given that the fly is in flight for 1 hour and flies 15 miles per hour, it must travel 15 miles.
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