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        riddles >> easy >> A Cat on a Ladder.
        
(Message started by: rloginunix on Nov 21^st, 2014, 9:48am)

Title: A Cat on a Ladder.
Post by rloginunix on Nov 21^st, 2014, 9:48am

A Cat on a Ladder.

A ladder standing on a smooth floor and leaning against a smooth wall is sliding down. In the exact middle of the ladder there sits a motionless cat.

1). What curve will the cat trace?

2). What curve will the cat trace if the experiment is repeated but the cat is sitting off the ladder's middle, up or down?

3). Under certain conditions the ladder itself becomes a tangent to a well known curve. What these conditions are and what curve would that be?

Note.
This puzzle is a mathematical abstraction and is a pivoting point of a 3-puzzle series: "Off the Edge of the Earth" (http://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~wwu/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi?board=riddles_easy;action=display;num=1413090975), this puzzle, and "Infinitely Fast Ladder" (http://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~wwu/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi?board=riddles_easy;action=display;num=1065999326). To derive the most benefit from this series read it in that order.

The forum regulars, however, may start pondering right away - what do these three puzzles have in common?

Title: Re: A Cat on a Ladder.
Post by Littleton on Nov 25^th, 2014, 3:00am

So, it is a mathematical abstraction not a puzzle.