#07 Amveriric鈥檚 boat
The billionaire Mr Amveriric keeps a yacht in a private dock in the Mediterranean. It is tethered to the quay by a rope.
Last time his staff tied up the boat, they left too much slack in the rope, so the boat is now 1 metre away from the quay when the rope is taut. Hearing that a storm is on the way, Amveriric realises that the boat might get smashed against the wall by the buffeting wind, so he sends his henchman, Benolin Chestikov, to shorten the rope.
Seeing that the boat is 1 metre from the wall, Benolin decides he will pull the rope horizontally by 1 metre, and as he pulls, the boat moves in horizontally.
Will the boat reach the wall or not? (And can you prove the answer to yourself without resorting to trigonometry?)
Answer next week
#06 Darts Challenge solution
The lowest score you can鈥檛 get with three darts is 163.
All other scores below 163 are achievable in three, for example 161 is 60 + 50 (bullseye) + treble 17.
With two darts, 103 is the lowest score that you can鈥檛 get, and with a single dart it is 23.
Given that you have to finish a game of darts on a double or with a bullseye, the lowest score from which you can鈥檛 finish with three darts is 159.
Quick quiz #07
1 Which German polymath and mathematician, who helped developed calculus, was lampooned as the ludicrously optimistic Professor Pangloss in Voltaire鈥檚 novel Candide?
2 Crocodile icefish of the Channichthyidae family are notable as the only vertebrates to lack which protein in their blood as adults?
3 Which solar system planet would float on water?
4 鈥淥nion routing鈥� is the core principle of which anonymity network that allows a user to conceal where they are accessing the internet from?
5 The Cliffside storage facility near Amarillo, Texas, houses the US national strategic reserve of which cryogenically essential gas?
Answers below
Quick quiz #07
Answers
1 Gottfried Leibniz
2 Haemoglobin. Also known as white-blooded fish, their blood is in fact colourless
3 Saturn. A cubic centimetre of Saturn weighs 0.7 grams on average, against 5.5 grams for Earth
4 Tor. The name stands for 鈥渢he onion router鈥�
5 Helium
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