Originally Posted by ebaines
OK - another fun little math problem for you to think about. This is one of my favorite math riddles because it sounds complicated but is really quite simple.
A man is in the habit of taking the train from work to his home town every day. The train always gets to his home town station precisely at 6:00 PM (hey, it's a math problem, so everything always works perfectly). Now this guy is rather rich, and he has a chauffeur who meets him at the train station every day at 6:00 to take him home. Every day the chauffer drives from the man's home to the station to meet his boss, and he has the timing down so well that he arrives at the station at the same time as the man gets off the train, so there's no idle time for either the chauffeur or the man. Every day after the man gets picked up they drive directly home, and they always arrive at home at exactly the same time every day.
Well one day the man decides to alter his routine, and he takes a train that gets in an hour early. But he forgets to call ahead to tell the chauffer to meet him early. When he gets off the train there is of course no car waiting, so the man decides to start walking home. After a while the chauffeur comes driving along, sees the man walking along the road, stops to pick him up, and and the two drive on home.
When they get home the man walks in the door and his wife says, "Honey, what a nice surprise! You're home 20 minutes early!"
Question - how long was the man walking along the road before the chauffeur stopped to pick him up?
Hint - if you find yourself trying to solve this using simultaneous equations in multiple unknowns you aren't thinking about it right - there's a simpler way.
