Question: Maths and common sense.......

[thewebmaster]

I've just done our quiz on here on Geography and that got me thinking...............thats it people start running now, me thinking usually leads to

Anyway, in the spirit of giving people a challenge, and in an arena where i have at least a slight (but only slight) advantage, this is a very simple maths problem. But one which serves to demostrate well how different people think about the same problem.



Problem: There are three locations drawn on the picture, the boxes with A B C represent appliances, and the a,b,c represent sockets. You must connect appliance A to socket a appliance B to socket b and appliance C to socket c. Using 3 separate wires, you must stay within the biggest black rectangle(the room). The wires must not cross each other.


Once you've had a chance to think about it, you can see the solution HERE, if it exists that is:wink.


Btw, since i'm always keen to motivate people to think about mathematics, if your really really interested:D, it actually links into topology in mathematics. Which computer scientists would have you believe is something to do with networks:wink, but actually extends to pretty much everything. From dough nutts to sub atomic particle arrangement, anyway enough mathematical stuff my head hurts...

[Win2Win]

Just use wireless electric the same way toothbrushes do :)

[mathare]

That's an easy problem - just move the appliances :splapme

[Bill]

My solution had A to a going over B and b to B going under A with C going round A then over B and back to c. In other words your solution inverted. Howzat Tom.

[Win2Win]

With the price of electric, I wouldn't be connecting them anyway

[thewebmaster]

Yeah the arrangement of the two horizontal lines doesn't really matter, as long as you put them in first before you draw in the last line.

[counterfeit]

Just move the appliances - it's not really any less logical then the real answer because who knows if you can get under B??????

[MattR]

It's all irrelevant because health and safety would shut the place down with those wires everywhere.

[John]

Who puts two appliances in the middle of a room?

[bigcumba]

Who puts two appliances in the middle of a room?

A woman.


C - is against the wall, that's obviously the telly. A is the iron (on the ironing board) so she can iron while watching Supermarket Sweep on telly, and B is her electric vibrator, (cos the batteries don't last long enough) which she also uses while ironing and watching telly, especially when that nice man Dale Winton is on....

[John]

Speaking from experience big man?