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    Problem of The Week

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    Two mice, Charlie and Priscilla, run in a maze with two loops at the same speed. In part a), it is determined that they will first meet at the starting point S after 20 seconds, and continue to meet every 20 seconds as Charlie runs two laps in loop 1 while Priscilla runs five laps in loop 2. In part b), when they meet they switch loops, and Charlie is in loop 2 after 32 seconds and loop 1 after 45 seconds. In part c), it is explained that the time between their meetings is always 20 seconds because loop 1 takes 10 seconds and loop 2 takes 4 seconds, so one mouse can do five laps of loop 2 in the time the other does two laps of loop 1

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    Problem of The Week

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    61 views2 pages
    Two mice, Charlie and Priscilla, run in a maze with two loops at the same speed. In part a), it is determined that they will first meet at the starting point S after 20 seconds, and continue to meet every 20 seconds as Charlie runs two laps in loop 1 while Priscilla runs five laps in loop 2. In part b), when they meet they switch loops, and Charlie is in loop 2 after 32 seconds and loop 1 after 45 seconds. In part c), it is explained that the time between their meetings is always 20 seconds because loop 1 takes 10 seconds and loop 2 takes 4 seconds, so one mouse can do five laps of loop 2 in the time the other does two laps of loop 1

    Original Description:

    Mathematics

    Original Title

    POTWB-15-NN-26-S

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    Two mice, Charlie and Priscilla, run in a maze with two loops at the same speed. In part a), it is determined that they will first meet at the starting point S after 20 seconds, and continue to meet every 20 seconds as Charlie runs two laps in loop 1 while Priscilla runs five laps in loop 2. In part b), when they meet they switch loops, and Charlie is in loop 2 after 32 seconds and loop 1 after 45 seconds. In part c), it is explained that the time between their meetings is always 20 seconds because loop 1 takes 10 seconds and loop 2 takes 4 seconds, so one mouse can do five laps of loop 2 in the time the other does two laps of loop 1

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    61 views2 pages

    Problem of The Week

    Uploaded by

    scribd-in-action
    Two mice, Charlie and Priscilla, run in a maze with two loops at the same speed. In part a), it is determined that they will first meet at the starting point S after 20 seconds, and continue to meet every 20 seconds as Charlie runs two laps in loop 1 while Priscilla runs five laps in loop 2. In part b), when they meet they switch loops, and Charlie is in loop 2 after 32 seconds and loop 1 after 45 seconds. In part c), it is explained that the time between their meetings is always 20 seconds because loop 1 takes 10 seconds and loop 2 takes 4 seconds, so one mouse can do five laps of loop 2 in the time the other does two laps of loop 1

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    of 2

    Problem of the Week

    Problem B
    A-Maze-ing Mice!
    Problem
    Two mice, Charlie and Priscilla, run at the same speed in a small maze with two loops, as
    shown below.

    They can run counter-clockwise around loop 1 in


    10 s, and clockwise around loop 2 in 4 s.
    They start together from S, where the corners of
    loop 1 and loop 2 meet, at time t = 0 s, with Charlie
    running on loop 1 and Priscilla on loop 2.

    a) If Charlie continues to run around loop 1, and Priscilla continues to run around loop 2,
    when will they first meet again at S? When will the next meeting occur?
    b) Suppose that, whenever they meet at S, they get confused and switch to the other loop,
    continuing at the same speed. In which loop will Charlie be after 32 s? After 45 s?
    c) If they continue as in part b), is the length of time between their meetings at S always
    the same? Explain.

    Solution
    a) The table on the right gives the times
    for both Charlie and Priscilla after each
    of 5 laps. To meet at S, they must
    have matching times at the end of a lap.
    Clearly they will first meet at S after 20
    seconds, and will continue to meet every
    20 seconds thereafter, since Priscilla always runs 5 laps (in 20 seconds) around
    Loop 2 while Charlie runs 2 laps (in 20
    seconds) around Loop 1.

    Laps Cs Time

    Ps Time

    10

    20

    30

    12

    40

    16

    50

    20

    b) The table on the right shows the times


    at which Charlie and Priscilla complete
    laps, assuming they switch loops whenever they meet at S. Their locations are
    indicated by L1 for Loop 1, L2 for Loop
    2, and S when they meet. Thus we see
    that after 32 seconds, Charlie is in Loop
    2, and after 45 seconds, he is in Loop 1.
    c) The table entries indicate that Charlie
    and Priscilla continue to meet every 20
    seconds. This is due to the fact that
    they both run at the same speed, so
    its as if they did not switch loops upon
    meeting at S, but just continued in the
    same loop as in part a).
    That they meet every 20 seconds is due
    to the fact that Loop 1 takes either
    mouse 10 seconds, while Loop 2 takes
    four seconds. Thus whichever mouse is
    running in Loop 2 can do five laps while
    the other mouse does two laps of Loop
    1. Since the smallest number that is a
    whole number (of laps) times both 4 and
    10 is 20, they meet every 20 seconds.

    Laps Cs Time

    Ps Time

    10 (L1)

    4 (L2)

    20 (S)

    8 (L2)

    24 (L2)

    12 (L2)

    28 (L2)

    16 (L2)

    32 (L2)

    20 (S)

    36 (L2)

    30 (L1)

    40 (S)

    40 (S)

    50 (L1)

    44 (L2)

    60 (S)

    48 (L2)

    10

    64 (L2)

    52 (L2)

    11

    68 (L2)

    56 (L2)

    12

    72 (L2)

    60 (L2)

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