Mar 29, 2006

瞎子落水

這是我在INFORMS Simulation Society上看到的一則題目(This problem was originally posted by jindols79 on http://www.mensakorea.org.)。我把題目翻譯,並稍做修飾。


一條平坦、筆直且靜止的河流,假設河面寬2公里,長度無限長。今有一瞎子掉落河的中央,他要游回岸上,但已經失去方向。請問,要如何才能把最壞情況下的游泳距離減至最低? 例如,如果他筆直的游,有可能永遠都到不了陸地(因為他游的方向與陸地平行);所所他可以游1公里,然後游以1公里為半徑的圓,直到碰到陸地。如此最壞的情況是,(1+\pi)公里。


這問題還真不簡單。有人有解法嗎?

[Answer] Swim straight 2/(31/2) miles toward any direction from the starting point. Change the swimming direction by 120° and swim straight exactly 1/(31/2) mile. Then swim pi/6 mile making a circle of radius 1 mile. If you have not reached the land yet, swim straight. The worst case swimming distance of this strategy is (31/2 + pi/6 + 1) miles.

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