BK. Bananas and Rockets

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

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.

RSS feed for comments on this post · TrackBack URL

Leave a Comment

You must be logged in to post a comment.

The Math Factor Podcast Website


Quality Math Talk Since 2004, on the web and on KUAF 91.3 FM


A production of the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, Ark USA


Download a great math factor poster to print and share!

Got an idea? Want to do a guest post? Tell us about it!

Heya! Do us a favor and link here from your site!