BK. Bananas and Rockets

October 25, 2006 · answers, calculusey stuff, infinity, math puzzles, The Mathcast · Permalink

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A classic puzzle reveals why rockets require so much fuel, even for wee payloads.

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1 Comment »

  1. leevp said,

    June 19, 2008 at 1:24 am

    I recently discovered the podcast and am listening to the old programs. I agree with your solution but noticed that there are other ways to achieve the result without going to the 200 mile point right away. You could drop 2995 bananas at mile 1 (five 1 mile trips required) and then drop 2990 at mile 2 and so on until you get to mile 200 with 2000 and then you can drop 1997 at mile 201 etc until mile 533 where you drop 1001 and leave one for the wild camels. So the more general principle is you always set out with as many bananas as you can from your last depot, not necessarily 1000. This method would let you keep a closer eye on your depots, but would require alot of loading and unloading bananas.

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