More of a Puzzle than a Joke

[BlackVXGTS]

Two bulls are facing each other two miles apart.

The bulls start heading directly towards each other, each travelling at one mile per hour.

A fly starts off on the nose of one bull and flies at two miles per hour directly to the nose of the other bull. The fly then continues to travel backwards and forwards between the two bulls.

When the two bulls meet in the middle the fly is killed.

Question: How far did the fly travel?

Record time for the fastest answer is 13 seconds. Record time for the longest answer is three hours.

Don't post the answer and spoil the fun, maybe post how long it took you.

[theperthvan]

12 seconds
I win

[Kirbs]

11 seconds, BAM

[Philthy]

10 seconds, WHAM!!

I don't get it. Is it meant to be a trick or is the obvious answer the real one?

[VN_chris]

YEAH 9 seconds........................................... .................. then i got really confused and had a cup of tea!

[Andrew426]

It would make sense that the fly flew 2 miles, though it doesnt make any sense at all

[stocky]

im guessing youre all wrong and not thinking about it properly, since the distance the fly travels gets shorter as the two bulls get closer together

[Philthy]

im guessing youre all wrong and not thinking about it properly, since the distance the fly travels gets shorter as the two bulls get closer together

My thinking was: time taken for the bulls to collide, then distance travelled by fly over that time @ 2mph

[Fekason]

I would say it took me about 2 seconds. Take it by steps and it is unbelievably simple.

[stocky]

yeah i think that sounds right, considering the fly changing direction back and forward has no impact on the result

[danja]

Depends if you want to know how far the fly moved, or how far it traveled in the time it took for the bulls to collide?

Either way, they are 3 dumb animals

[minux]

I cannot believe all the over analysis in this thread.

Took 2 seconds to get the answer.

[Tsunamix]

Total distance the fly flew ?

Or the distance between where he started and his dead mangled corpse ?

[Jbird]

wat was the weather conditions like, there could of been wind resistance which affects the flys time of flight. Also was the ground firm this would allow the bulls speeds to be constant.

[azkwazere]

I agree, was there any gradient to the surface?

Was this completed at SLC?

Assuming that there would be some landing, take off time, what is the transitional time?

Who trained the bulls? were they in good condition?

aZk.

[ClairBear]

Blow flies or sand flies?

[nick3110]

lol at the variables ^^^

[Tom_1569]

Took me longer to read the text after "how long did the fly travel" then it did to get the answer lol.

Assuming it means the real obvious though.

[levymetal]

only took about 20 seconds to get the answer, then i wanted to know if i was correct or not so i decided to write a piece of code to draw out the entire scenario. i didn't even have to run the code because i had already written the answer

[jaisvz]

1 second, 2 miles.