The Bee and The Trains

Time for the new puzzler.

This one is locomotive in nature. Not automotive... it is locomotive.

Here it is.

You have two trains on the same track speeding toward one another.

The trains are 150 miles apart. They are on the same track, heading opposite directions toward each other. Total bummer... They are traveling at 75 miles per hour.

Anyway, when the trains are 150 miles away from each other, a very fast bee flies from the front bumper of one train to the front bumper of the other train.

And as soon as it gets there, without losing any time, it turns right around and heads back to the first train.

So to recap, two trains on the same track, speeding towards each other. When they are 150 miles apart, this bee flies from one speeding train to the other, and then back again, and the bee is flying at 137 and a half miles per hour.

And the puzzler question is this.

How far will the bee have traveled before he is squashed like a grape between 150 tons of mangled steel when the two trains collide on the track?

Good luck.

Answer the Puzzler »

Remember last week's puzzler?

Postal Predictions

Puzzler time!

Here we go.

You have to put yourself into this one and do some imagining. Here it is.

You get a letter in the mail predicting the winner of a heavyweight championship match a few weeks before the event.

There's no other information in the letter, just the prediction. Nothing else.

You don't take it seriously, thinking it's a prank from a friend. Nevertheless, the prediction turns out to be correct.

You receive subsequent letters predicting the winners of events a few days before they happen. The letters correctly predict the winners of the Heavyweight Championship, the World Series, the NBA Finals,
the most recent elections, and the World Chess Championship. They predict the NCAA basketball finals, and the Rose Bowl...

You are amazed. These letters are always correct in their predictions, even though some of these wins are upsets.

Shortly after the Rose Bowl, you receive a letter stating that if you send 10 grand to a certain address, one week before the Super Bowl, you'll receive a letter with the winner of that event.

The puzzler question is this.

Should you do it, and why?