Presented by Cold Stone Creamery(R)

The Department of Mathematics Challenge of the Week
A solution and a new problem is posted every Monday during fall and spring semesters at www.cs.colostate.edu/~rmm

Email your solutions to solution@math.colostate.edu. Indicate your status (undergrad/grad/faculty/other) and school affiliation or city of residence if you are not affiliated with a school.

One winner each week is eligible for a free ice cream and topping, courtesy of Cold Stone Creamery.



Challenge 8, Fall '04

(The problem was contributed by Kyriakos Chatzidimitriou, grad student, CSU)

A room is two meters wide, five meters long, and two meters tall. An ant is sitting on the edge of the ceiling, at the midpoint of one of the two-meter-long walls. She would like to get to a bread crumb that is on the edge of the floor, at the midpoint of of the opposite wall. How far does she have to walk? Click here for an illustration. (Assume that she has to walk the whole way; she can't fly, jump, or drop.) Hint: The answer is not 7.

Solution

Correct solutions: Ben Joeris, (Fort Collins High), Jeremy Buss, Tim Ellis, Kyle Thayer (CSU Undergrad students), Virginia Willett (Colorado School of Mines undergrad), Monica Chawathe, Gabriel Somlo, Andrew Sutton, Vaibhav Madhok (CSU Grad students), Andrew Johnson (Colorado School of Mines grad student), Florian Hulpke (University of Hannover grad student), Marcio Teixeira (CSU Alum), Steve Short, Nicolae Popescu (Fort Collins), Byung-Soo Kim (South Korea). Jeremy Buss gets the ice cream.


Previous Challenges, Fall '04

Challenge 1

Challenge 2

Challenge 3

Challenge 4

Challenge 5

Challenge 6

Challenge 7

If you would like to receive a weekly email reminder about the Challenge Problem, send an email to solution@math.colostate.edu

The Department of Mathematics Challenge Problem is sponsored by the Cold Stone Creamery, which is providing all the prizes.

If more than one correct solution is submitted, one prize winner will be chosen from among the correct solutions. Submissions from CSU faculty and people not affiliated with CSU are encouraged, but they are ineligible for the prizes.

For questions, comments or suggestions for future challenge problems: please e-mail Ross McConnell, rmm@cs.colostate.edu.