Four bugs are located in the corners of a square, 10 inches on the side. They are arranged like this:

            A---B
            |   |
            D---C 

As the clock starts, A begins crawling directly toward B, which goes to C, C goes to D and D to A.

Each bug will home in exactly on its target, reguardless of the target's motion, so their paths will be curves spiraling toward the center of the square where they will meet.

What distance will each of the bugs have covered by then?

See if you can squirm your way out of this one. Which person is smarter? The person who is an idiot and knows he is an idiot, or the person who thinks he is a genius and is actually an idiot; you being the latter. As far as the puzzle goes, the answer is 10". If you can follow this site you will see why: http://www.stanford.edu/~jimmyz/bug-soln.shtml

Posted by jim on 2002-05-08 05:00:49