The New Sudoku Players' Forum

[Bigtone53]

Just for old times sake, a man walks south for one mile, then east for one mile and then north for one mile and ends up exactly where he started, But, he did not start at the North Pole. Where did he start?

This is not a riddle, so dont read things into the words, which are just as they seem

[udosuk]

I know the answer...

There are actually more than one possible places, all pretty close to where I live (at least closer than where Bigtone does)...

[Smythe Dakota]

.... There are actually more than one possible places, all pretty close to where I live (at least closer than where Bigtone does) ....

Oh, really. Are you a penguin ?

Bill Smythe

[tarek]

The fun would be to know the exact parallel

The next tricky thing is to know if you've based your directions on a TRUE compass or not.........

tarek

[Bigtone53]

The fun would be to know the exact parallel

Ah, but there is more than one exact parallel. Which do you want?

[tarek]

Ah, but there is more than one exact parallel. Which do you want?

The one that has the earth spherical

by the way you did not specify if we are on LEVEL ground or even on the GROUND , come to think about it, you did not specify if we were on Earth in the first place

tarek

[Bigtone53]

Bigtone53 wrote:
Ah, but there is more than one exact parallel. Which do you want?

The one that has the earth spherical

by the way you did not specify if we are on LEVEL ground or even on the GROUND , come to think about it, you did not specify if we were on Earth in the first place

This is all true, unfortunately.

However, given a perfectly spherical Earth and being on its surface, there are still a number of parallels which fit the bill, not just one.

[MCC]

...by the way you did not specify if we are on LEVEL ground or even on the GROUND , come to think about it, you did not specify if we were on Earth in the first place

I think it has to be ground level because you need a planetary body with a dipolar magnetic field to have a magnetic direction in which to use a compass, the directions N.E.W.S are not used in space.

How can you travel one mile east and arrive back in the same spot?
You can travel around a circle one mile in circumference or twice round a circle with a 1/2 mile circumference or four times around a circle with a 1/4 mile circumference and so on.


MCC

[Bigtone53]

How can you travel one mile east and arrive back in the same spot?
You can travel around a circle one mile in circumference or twice round a circle with a 1/2 mile circumference or four times around a circle with a 1/4 mile circumference and so on.

So I think that all who responded got there. Let me drum up a more exacting one next time.

[RW]

But you didn't define what kind of mile we were talking about. If it was a nautical mile, the man was probably a sailor, from which we can assume that he was drunk, and under the influence of alcohol people strangely tend to end up in places they really shouldn't be. So the man could have started anywhere on the planet, walked the miles but still somehow managed to get back to the starting point.

RW

[Bigtone53]

The desire for precision is exemplified by the following story from the book, 'Concepts of Modern Mathematics', by Ian Stewart:



An Astronomer, a Physicist and a Mathematician (it is said) were holidaying in Scotland. Glancing from a train window, they observed a black sheep in the middle of a field. "How interesting," observed the Astronomer, "all Scottish sheep are black!" To which the Physicist responded, "No! Some Scottish sheep are black." The Mathematician gazed heavenward in supplication and then intoned, "In Scotland, there exists at least one field, containing at least one sheep, at least one side of which is black."

[MCC]

The next line reads:

"Mathematicians (when on their best behaviour) tend to caution."

Can we deduce anything from this, is Bigtone53 a mathematician

If he is, he acted without caution and therefore not on his best behaviour by not thinking about the puzzle he posted.

Or, he isn't, he is interested in mathematics (he has a copy of the above book in his possession).

The only thing we can deduce is that he has an interest in mathematics.

Now a riddle, it may look familiar but is not mathematical.

Just for old times sake, a man walks south for one mile, then east for one mile and then north for one mile and ends up exactly where he started, But, he did not start at the North Pole. Where did he start?

MCC

[MCC]

It seems that people are either stumped for an answer or have lost the will to live and apathy has set in.

Just for old times sake, a man walks south for one mile, then east for one mile and then north for one mile and ends up exactly where he started, But, he did not start at the North Pole. Where did he start?

The answer: "When he met a polar bear".


MCC

[Cec]

Well I'm certainly one that has been stumped with this riddle. Even though I couldn't understand the clues from udosuk and Bill Smythe, I assumed Bigtone was convinced they knew the answer when he said "So I think that all who responded got there. Let me drum up a more exacting one next time".

Subsequent posts followed with the latest from MCC saying the answer is ""When he met a polar bear" which I just can't relate to as an answer?

It's bedtime (midnight) for me now and golf and other commitments tomorrow will preclude me becoming any more the wiser. I hope the mystery will be unraveled when I resume tomorrow night.

Cec

[MCC]

Cec, with the South pole as point of axis draw a circle around it of one mile circumference, now start one mile north of the circumference of the circle.
Now you can walk one mile south until you reach the circumference of the circle, you then walk around the circle, a one mile walk, bringing you back to the point you reached when you walked the one mile south, you then retrace the one mile back north to where you started from.

You can have a circle of 1/2 mile circumference, you then need to walk around twice before you start to head north.


For my riddle it's the word "start" and an alternate meaning.

Start: make a sudden movement from surprise, pain, etc.

Polar bears come from the Arctic so our intrepid explorer coming across one in the Antartic caused him to start.


MCC