A tower, 200 feet high, has an elevator inside it, and a spiral stairway winding its way around the tower at a constant 30 degree angle with the horisontal.

Given the tower's radius of 10 feet, what is the difference between the distance covered by a person going up in the elevator, versus one climbing the stairs?

Ooops, after re-reading the question the distance i gave is incorrect, if the tower's radius is 10 feet then the circumference is 20*pi; and the distance traveled on the spiral for every foot traveled on the elevator is 10*sqrt(2) or 14.14 ft.. that's a leeeetle bit more than I said at first.

10sqrt(2) * 200 - 200 = 2628 feet more

Posted by nate on 2002-05-07 05:27:07