Cities A and B are connected by a straight road of total length 200 miles.Two cars depart cities A and B at the same time, moving towards each other. The A-car travels at 60 miles per hour, and the B-car at 40 mph. At the same time, a fly starts off from the front bumper of the A-car flying at 100 mph. It flies towards city B until it touches the bumper of the B-car, and then flies back, touches the A-car, flies back, etc, until the cars collide and the fly is squashed. The standard trick question is - what is the total distance traveled by the fly? At first sight one would think that the problem should be solved by the series summation, but that’s not necessary - the cars meet after 2 hours, and during that time the fly traveling at 100 mph covers exactly 200 miles. Now that you know the answer, solve this problem using the
Cities A and B are connected by a straight road of total length 200 miles.Two cars depart cities A and B at the same time, moving towards each other. The A-car travels at 60 miles per hour, and the B-car at 40 mph. At the same time, a fly starts off from the front bumper of the A-car flying at 100 mph. It flies towards city B until it touches the bumper of the B-car, and then flies back, touches the A-car, flies back, etc, until the cars collide and the fly is squashed. The standard trick question is - what is the total distance traveled by the fly?
At first sight one would think that the problem should be solved by the series summation, but that’s not necessary - the cars meet after 2 hours, and during that time the fly traveling at 100 mph covers exactly 200 miles.
Now that you know the answer, solve this problem using the series summation [1].
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