Today Puzzle #746
Puzzle No. 745鈥� Monday 25 May
Tonight is the second episode of the 大象传媒 Two series, Monkman & Seagull's Genius Adventures. They look at Brunel's SS Great Britain, the first iron steamer to cross the Atlantic Ocean in 1845. It took 14 full days to travel from Bristol to New York at a distance of 3,359 miles. Was the average sailing speed of the SS Great Britain more than 10 miles per hour?
Today’s #PuzzleForToday has been set by Bobby Seagull, school maths teacher, author and Cambridge University Doctorate student.
Click here for the answer
No it is less than 10 miles per average sailing speed based on these inputs. The reality is that distance and the time might have been slightly different. So the distance may have been longer and in reality it was probably shorter than 14 full days, so the real life SS Great Britain would probably have sailed at slightly more than 10 miles per hour. But based on these figures:
Distance = 3359 miles
Hours = 14 days x 24 hours = 336 hours
Speed = Distance / Time = 3359 miles / 336 = 9.997 miles per hours, so just missing out on the 10 miles per hour speed.
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