pow 9

[stephanie]

A ship leaves to go to san fransico from new york on the first of every month on noon. at the same time another ship leaves from san fransico to new york. each ship arrives exactly 6 months after it leaves. suppose that you were on the ship leaving new york, how many ships from san fransico will you meet?

 

[stapel]

What have you tried? What is your reasoning so far?

Eliz.

 

[stephanie]

ummm i've tried a few things but none of them seem to be the answer so i just needed to no what you thought the explanation might be.

 

[Denis]

NY(12).......(11).......(10).......(9).......(8).......(7).......(6,5,4,3,2,1)SF

Just as it leaves NY, it will meet the ship that left SF 6 months ago.
After a half-month, it will meet another ship....
In the meantime, ships will be leaving SF....
I'll let you figure out what all that means :wink:

Of course, that's assuming the to and fro trips have been going on for at least 6 months.