A bicyclist starts his ride home from a point 10 miles away from his house going 5 miles per hour (assume the road is a perfect straight line). At the same time, a bee, initially sitting on his helmet (always wear your helmet!), takes off and flies toward the house at the speed of 15 miles per hour.

Upon reaching the house, the bee turns right around and flies back toward the bicyclist. When it reaches him it turns around again and flies back to the house. The bee keeps doing this until the man finally arrives at the house himself.

What total distance did the bee cover by that point in time?

OK, after 116.8 mins, the biker has traveled 9.75 miles, and the bee has bounced back and forth 3.5 times for a total of 28.34 miles. The last quarter mile will have the bee reversing directions a few more times, but the distance won't count for much.

I'm gonna round it off and 28 1/2 miles total.

It would be eay to just use the basketball theory we lerned in Calculus II, but man did I hate that class.

EDIT- WOW! that bee travels over a mile and a half during the last 3.2 minutes.

Edited on July 20, 2004, 12:03 pm

Posted by Jim on 2004-07-20 11:54:50