On Mon, Apr 20, 2009 at 1:21 PM, Alex Smith <ais...@bham.ac.uk> wrote: > The boat is designed for two rowers and one passenger, so the following > three possibilities exist: > 1. Only one person is in the boat. One person can manage the boat > by emself, crossing at their normal rowing speed; however, > because the boat is designed to be rowed by two people rather > than one, no passengers can accompany the person rowing if only > one person is rowing. > 2. There are two people in the boat. In this case, both people must > cooperate to row the boat across the river; one person cannot > handle the boat by emself if it contains a passenger. Rowing at > unequal speeds is a disaster (the boat would just go round in > circles), so the faster rower has to slow down to the speed of > the slower; as a result, the boat crosses the river in the same > time that it would take the slower of the two passengers to row > across by emself.
Surely two rowers rowing at the same speed would propel the boat twice as fast as one alone...
