The space freighter ‘Mako’ trades out of Antares. It travels at constant speed through hyperspace and its route is as follows:

ITINERARY
Antares-Alniyat ...........7 days
Alniyat- β Normae .......4 days
β Normae-1 Scorpii .....8 days
1 Scorpii-Antares ........5 days
Antares- π Scorpii .......7 days
π Scorpii-1 Scorpii.......3 days
1 Scorpii-Alniyat .........5 days
Alniyat-Dschubba ........3 days
Dschubba-Akrab .........6 days
Akrab-π Scorpii ..........4 days
π Scorpii- β Normae .....6 days
(Parts of days ignored throughout)

How many days would it take the ‘Mako’ to travel back home from β Normae to Antares?

7 days.

If one takes each originating system as a center point on a circle with the corresponding destination as a point on the corresponding circle of n days distant, one can map the possible relative location of each system to each other. Mapping as such, there are two separate points that are possible of beta Normae relative to the other systems [actually it would be doubled, but due to reflective symmetry would have no effect on distance relative to its mirrored counterpart]. One such point for beta Normae is approximately 7 days and the other is approximately 11 days distant from Antares. Given the travel distance from pi Scorpii to beta Normae as 6 days, its position can be deduced from the two possible. As the distances (in days) is rounded down, the position of beta Normae must be the one that is 7 days distant from Antares.

Posted by Dej Mar on 2011-04-06 03:25:05