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Ants math problem

Blogs > jtan
Post a Reply
jtan
Profile Blog Joined April 2003
Sweden5891 Posts
February 24 2008 18:43 GMT
#1
Well the other one got beaten pretty fast. So time for another one! Nothing new, but I like this one.

4 ants are sitting in the 4 corners of a table with side a.
Suddenly all ants sees the ant to it's right, and starts moving towards it. How far will each ant walk before they all meet?

Back up your amswer with calculations and don't post anything you didn't do yourself.

Good luck!

****
Enter a Uh
Cambium
Profile Blog Joined June 2004
United States16368 Posts
February 24 2008 18:45 GMT
#2
If this is what I think it is, I saw something similar on my calc 1 exam...
When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.
KarlSberg~
Profile Blog Joined September 2003
731 Posts
Last Edited: 2008-02-24 19:14:32
February 24 2008 19:05 GMT
#3
I'm not absolutely sure but
+ Show Spoiler +
From the point of view of an ant (any of them obviously), at any instant the speed of the ant you are following is orthogonal to your own speed. The relative speed simply is... your own speed (speed vector is not the same because of direction but its norm is the same).
Which means you will close the gap in the exact same time as if the ant you are following was not moving.
So the length of the spiral every ant walks is the side of the table.
There are 01 kind of people who know binary. Those who understand little endian and those who don t.
15vs1
Profile Joined November 2007
64 Posts
Last Edited: 2008-02-24 19:42:47
February 24 2008 19:39 GMT
#4
+ Show Spoiler +

Using the symmetry of this problem (all ants are similar) one can infer that we can yield coordinates of the next anth by rotating corrdinates of the previous. Using this we can easy recieve following equations (in polar coordinates, origin in the centre of table)
[image loading]

Solution of this system is logarithmic spiral, it is not relevant for this problem because we can use first equation to obtain the time before they meet (when r=0, initial r is sqrt2/2*a)
[image loading]

where V-velocity of ants.
jtan
Profile Blog Joined April 2003
Sweden5891 Posts
February 24 2008 19:45 GMT
#5
that probably holds karlsberg, so good job, but I intended it to be harder

adding: give an equation for the curves of the ants paths.
Enter a Uh
jtan
Profile Blog Joined April 2003
Sweden5891 Posts
Last Edited: 2008-02-24 19:50:49
February 24 2008 19:49 GMT
#6
Yeah 15vs1 got it too.

Where do you get those equation pics from? Looking sweet.
Enter a Uh
15vs1
Profile Joined November 2007
64 Posts
February 24 2008 19:54 GMT
#7
http://www.texify.com you enter your equation in latex language and it generates pic for it.
aseq
Profile Joined January 2003
Netherlands3979 Posts
February 24 2008 19:54 GMT
#8
Aren't the four ants each walking a quarter circle? Their looking pattern is a square which gets smaller and rotates one quarter.

Length of circle = 2PI * R
Length of quarter circle PI * R / 2
R is half a side, so:
PI * side / 4


jtan
Profile Blog Joined April 2003
Sweden5891 Posts
February 24 2008 20:07 GMT
#9
no aseq, they form a logarithmic spiral, not half a circle. they are always facing the other ant, first they move pretty straight and then they turn more and more as they get closer. Try drawing it.
Enter a Uh
aseq
Profile Joined January 2003
Netherlands3979 Posts
February 24 2008 20:16 GMT
#10
Oh, could very well be, i can't really imagine the shape of it...but i wouldn't know how to measure the length of a spiral anyway, so i'll leave that to the brighter minds.
ToT)SiLeNcE(
Profile Blog Joined February 2003
Germany590 Posts
February 24 2008 21:38 GMT
#11
Hehe I was unable to solve this puzzle because I had to think of scvs circling around a vespene geyser all the time and therefore thought they wouldn't meet at all. lol.
jtan
Profile Blog Joined April 2003
Sweden5891 Posts
February 25 2008 06:40 GMT
#12
On February 25 2008 06:38 ToT)SiLeNcE( wrote:
Hehe I was unable to solve this puzzle because I had to think of scvs circling around a vespene geyser all the time and therefore thought they wouldn't meet at all. lol.

Haha!

If you put 4 scvs in the corners of an empty map and order them to attack eachother, you will probably get the same effect though
Enter a Uh
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