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Sat 6 Dec, 2003 06:45 pm
A Beanie Baby named Joe comes home from work by train every day. He gets to the train station at 5 pm and from there his dog picks him up in the car. One day Joe arrived at the station at 4 pm and decided to start walking and meet his dog somewhere between the train station and home. His dog drove the car as usual; met him on the road before reaching the station, and took him home.
That day, they got home 20 minutes earlier.
Question: How long had Joe been walking?
(Tips: not 20 minutes; not 40 minutes; of course beany babies can drive; and if beany babies can drive, well, then so can their dogs.)
I believe we need some more numbers here...namely the ratio of Joe's walking speed to the car's driving speed, and/or how far away the house is.
Of course, I could be wrong.
Everything you need is there
Well, assuming that Joe and the car move at the same speed, Joe would have been walking for ten minutes. Since he got in an hour earlier, I would assume that to get ten minutes of car speed, Joe would be walking for the hour. And his speed would be 1/6 of the car's (roughly). So, the answer does depend on the ratio of Joe's speed to the car's speed.
The wording of a riddle or puzzle is very important, Tet -- and I see that your wording has some deficiencies.
But making a few assumptions -- I am going to say that Joe had walked for 50 minutes.
I'd have to agree ith Frank's answer but I would not agree that there is information missing or badly expressed.
If 20 mins was saved on the car's time it would have been ten minutes saved each way. So it must have met him at ten minutes to five. He started waling at 4:00, so he was therefore walking for 50 mins.
The wording problems that I mentioned were minor, but worth mentioning, since I had to make some assumptions:
There was no mention of the fact that in order for this to work -- the dog has to arrive at the station at exactly 5 O'clock every day...
...and extraneous traffic cannot play a part in the solution.
Good puzzle!
Franki
One thing you can guarantee with beany-babies' dogs is that they are punctual. You can set the atomic clock by them! :-)
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