Mr. Ambrose and Mr. Bruford, two senior executives of a London based multinational organisation, embarked on a business tour during the course of the year 2003 A.D. to two of the branches of the organisation located in the capital cities of two different countries. The flag of the country visited by Mr.Ambrose included a blue trapezoid and a green trapezoid as two of its features while the flag of the country corresponding to the city visited by Mr. Bruford contained a purely red circle.

Immediately upon reaching the capital city of the host country, Mr. Ambrose reset his 24 hour wristwatch in accordance with the local time and observed that the date according to his watch was Pth day of the Qth month of 2003, where 2003 when divided separately by P and Q yielded a remainder of 3 in both the cases; both P and Q were greater than 3, and (P+Q) was divisible by 5. Furthermore, it was a FRIDAY according to his watch.

After reaching his hotel room, when it was precisely (x^2) Hours according to his watch, Mr. Ambrose contacted Mr. Bruford for an urgent matter whereby he learnt that the time according to Mr. Bruford's 24 Hour electronic wristwatch (which was also reset in accordance with the local time) at the same instant was exactly ((5/4)*x² +2) hours.

Later during the same day, after returning from an important business meeting to his hotel room, Mr.Ambrose's watch displayed exactly ((5/4)*x²+2) Hours when Mr. Ambrose contacted Mr.Bruford for the second time to discuss the outcome of their respective business meetings; Mr. Bruford's response included the fact that the time by his watch was exactly x Hours.

What cities were visited by Mr. Ambrose and Mr.Bruford? What was the date and time according to their respective wristwatches when Mr. Ambrose contacted Mr. Bruford for the second time?

Note: This problem is based on the global political scenario prevailing in 2003 A.D.

(In reply to re: No Subject by tomarken)

Given that the two businessmen were senior executives of a London-based firm, the British definition of a trapezoid applies.  This rules out any quadrilateral that has any parallel sides at all. (In America, this geometric shape is called a "trapezium".  In Britain, a "trapezium" is a quadrilateral with 2 and only 2 parallel sides, but the problem doesn't ask for a flag with trapeziums.)

It is possible that Tokyo is one of the cities, but the flag of Djibouti appears to have a blue "trapezium" and a green "trapezium" instead of the trapezoids called for in the British interpretation of this problem.

Another hint that the British interpretation applies here is that the problem's author uses the British spelling of "organisation" instead of the American English spelling, which is "organization".

Since the flag of Bangladesh has a red circle, we may find these British trapezoids in a flag of a country with in the same time zone as Sierra Leone or Gambia, or in a country nearby that observes Daylight Savings Time or its equivalent.

Posted by Mindrod on 2006-03-26 23:54:09