On Mon, Apr 20, 2009 at 3:12 PM, comex <com...@gmail.com> wrote: > 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...
Only if a person can work one oar twice as fast as e can work two. -root
