Henry Ernest Dudeney/Modern Puzzles/165 - The Despatch-Rider in Flanders
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Modern Puzzles by Henry Ernest Dudeney: $165$
- The Despatch-Rider in Flanders
- A despatch-rider on horseback, somewhere in Flanders, had to ride with all possible speed from $A$ to $B$.
- The distances are marked on the map.
- Now, he can ride just twice as as fast over the soft turf (the shaded bit) as he can ride over the loose sand.
- Can you show what is the quickest possible route for him to take?
- This is just one of those practical problems with which the soldier is faced from day to day when on active service.
- Important results may hang on the rider taking the right or the wrong route.
- Which way would you have gone?
- Of course, the turf and the sand extend for miles to the right and the left with the same respective depths of three miles and two miles,
- so there is no trick in the puzzle.
Click here for solution
Sources
- 1926: Henry Ernest Dudeney: Modern Puzzles ... (previous) ... (next): Unicursal and Route Problems: $165$. -- The Despatch-Rider in Flanders
- 1968: Henry Ernest Dudeney: 536 Puzzles & Curious Problems ... (previous) ... (next): Geometrical Problems: Solid Geometry Puzzles: $311$. The Dispatch Rider in Flanders