Ant v. Housefly

Many a French parent has complained in recent years of the burdensome work put upon his children in school. Some have made protest to the French Parliament. Lately they exhibited the following problem, given to 15-year-olds, in the lycee (high school) at Nantes:

On a circular track 25 centimeters in diameter a housefly and an ant ran a race. The stride of the ant was 5/10 millimeters in length; three of his strides equaled one of the housefly's. In two minutes the ant made 2,000 strides; the housefly 500. Given: 1) the race was for 300 meters; 2) after eight hours the housefly began to cheat by flying to the point on the race track diametrically opposite to him, in the space of one second every alternate round, from that minute on; 3) at the same instant the ant sprained one of his ankles so that he could take only 1,200 strides every two minutes.

To find. Which won the race? At the finish, what was the time of each contestant? What was the distance covered while running by the housefly? How many times did the ant run around the track?

The Nantes schoolmaster who set the problem gave his pupils one day for it. None solved it correctly. In Manhattan last week the problem was presented to Dr. Salo Finkelstein, famed Polish lightning calculator (TIME, Nov. 14). He said it was not in his line, the English too complicated.

The correct answers: The ant won the race in 11 hr. 20 min. The fly's time was 12 hr. 1 min. 16 sec. The fly ran 270 meters. The ant circled the track 382 times.

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