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 Wait a minute. by vilnius)

In a standard track each runner has his or her own lane. On a curved track this forces the outer lanes to have starting positions further 'downstream' to offset the increase distance of the outside lanes in a curve. In distance running it is usually required that the runner stays in his or her own lane for a set distance to offset this and allow a staggered start. If the lanes are 3' wide AND THEY ALL START AT THE SAME POINT they shouldn't meet at the start especially if the times given were for running on the inside lane (or outside if the circumference given is for the outer lane).
Besides on the second day if they are not in there own lanes they would surely collide.

Posted by vilnius on 2006-04-12 21:13:47