Question by Nick: Science/Physics Question?
When two bikes going 10 km/hr are 20 km apart, a bee begins flying from one wheel to the other at a steady speed of 30 km/hr. When it gets to the wheel, it abruptly turns around and flies back to touch the first wheel, then turns around and keeps repeating the back and forth trip until the bikes meet and SQUISH!
Question
How many kilometers did the bee travel in its total back and forth trips?
and why/how did the bee travel the distance
Best answer:
Answer by Dr Spock
30 km.
The two bikes will each go 10km in an hour and thus meet at that time, since they started 20 km apart. (You FORGOT to say that they were APPPROACHING one another initially, although that did emerge later!)
Therefore they meet after an hour. In that time the busy little bee has been flying at 30km/hr. Therefore, it gets squished (thus ceasing to be a bee and becoming a has been of a bee) after flying 30km.
Live long and prosper.
Add your own answer in the comments!
The bikes never meet because they are traveling at a constant speed with a constant distance. The bee has nothing to do with changing their speeds.
30 km
(the bikes take 1 h to meet, 10 km for each at 10 km/h.
The bee moves at 30 km/h during 1 h …)
Find time it take for bikes to meet (hint: 20/(10+10)) and multiply by bee speed.