Problem of the Week #3: Solution

Cold-Blooded Killer

Hello all and welcome to to another roundup of Problem of the Week.  If the time intervals don't seem to be adding up, just remember that "week" is an illusion here at Virtuosi headquarters.  "Problem of the Week," doubly so.  But enough with the excuses, let's see if Mr. Bond lives to Die Another Day.

The situation presented in the problem was one of a glass of water filled all the way to the top with a single ice cube in it.  The goal is to see if any water falls to the floor as the ice cube melts.

Problem of the Week #2: Solution

Thanks to all who sent in solutions! We are very happy with the vast number of responses, and we will put up a leader board shortly!

Solution

Problem of the Week #3

We welcome you to send in solutions, or even any ideas you have about how to solve the problems to the.physics.virtuosi@gmail.com with “problem of the week” in the subject line. We will keep track of the top Virtuosi problem solvers.

Welcome to the third installment of Problem of the Week!  We are very pleased with the number of responses we have gotten so far and we super duper promise to put up some kind of leader board soon.  In fact, I super duper promise to relegate that assignment to Alemi.  We intend to keep this up as long as we can and give out prizes for high scores maybe...? They will be lame internet prizes...?

The solution to the last problem of the week will be up shortly.  Adam is the only one who knows the answer and he was busy all weekend taking a magic ring to Mordor.

One more housekeeping note.  Since we want everyone to have a clean shot at answering the question, we would prefer the solutions to be sent by email instead of posted in the comments.  However, we certainly don't want to stop discussion on the problem, so if you don't want any hints you might want to avoid the comments!

Now for the problem...

Problem of the Week #2

As always, we welcome you to send in solutions, or even any ideas you have about how to solve the problems to the.physics.virtuosi@gmail.com with “problem of the week” in the subject line. We will keep track of the top Virtuosi problem solvers.

Why did the ant cross the rubber band?

A rubber band is held fixed at one end. The other end is pulled at a velocity v. At time t = 0, the rubber band has a length of L, and an ant starts crawling from one end to the other at velocity u.

Does the ant reach the other side? If so, how long does it take to get there? Assume that the rubber band is able to be stretched indefinitely without breaking.

Problem of the Week #1

I thought we could spice things up a bit with a more interactive post on The Virtuosi. Starting this week, a new problem of the week will be posted each week. Solutions will be posted the following week. These problems will be a collection of physics and math problems and riddles, and although hopefully challenging enough to be fun and interesting, they should mostly be solvable using concepts from introductory undergraduate physics and math classes.

We welcome you to ponder these problems, and send in solutions, or even any ideas you have about how to solve the problems to the.physics.virtuosi@gmail.com with “problem of the week” in the subject line. We will keep track of the top Virtuosi problem solvers.

Here it goes…