Friday, July 18, 2008

Friday Fun - How Long is the Ring Road around Iceland?

My wife and I are taking a leisurely drive around Iceland on the Ring Road... at this point we should be a little more than half way on the East side of Iceland in EgilsstaĆ°ir. However, I thought it might be fun to give you a little topical puzzle in honor of our trip.
Q: Two couples leave Reykjavik at exactly the same time traveling opposite directions on the Ring Road around Iceland. When they meet later, one couple has traveled 120 miles farther than the other. After a night's rest in a hotel and some refueling, the couples continue their respective drives. The first couple arrives back at Reykjavik 9 hours later, the second couple takes 16 hours. Assuming that each couple maintains the same constant speed each time they drive, how long is the Ring Road around Iceland?
I'll post the answer next Friday.

6 comments:

  1. Well, I did have to resort to a calculator at some point, but I think I have the answer.

    I'll say that the distance from the starting point to the meeting point had me going around full circle.

    All this math is making my brain tired. I think I'll video games.

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  2. I tried solving this puzzle - but I keep coming down to a trinomial. Am I on the right track?

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  3. Yeah, that sounds right to me.
    You'll most likely need to use the quadratic formula... and a calculator.

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  4. Thank you happy steve...I realize now initially the number is orwellian...

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  5. haha Happy Steve! I was pondering the work I did to solve this problem, and now I understand your first clue.

    Nice one.

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