Three friends A, B and C regularly jog in circular jogging track every morning. The track is 1000 m in circumference.

A takes 8 mins to complete one lap, B takes 10 mins and 40 secs and C takes 12 mins. One day they decided to find out if they set out together in the same direction from a point what would be the fastest time for all of them to meet at any point on the track. What did they conclude?

The second day C decides to run in the opposite direction from the starting point. When will they all meet? Will this be sooner than the time taken on day one? Where do they meet in both cases?

(In reply to re: A start? by Charlie)

Thanks Charlie!  Assuming you're right (and in my relatively short time here on the site, it seems like you're always right), it's great to see the explanation for the second part.  It was one of those where I was pretty confident in my instincts, but as usual I wasn't sure how to actually prove it or explain it.

Posted by tomarken on 2006-04-12 11:01:34