MATHS WEEK STARTED on Saturday and, as is our annual tradition, we’re setting our readers some puzzles. Give them a go!

Day three – On the Right Track 

The next train due stops at five local stations before your destination, which is 70km away.

The duration of each stop is two minutes and the train averages 60km/h between stations.

An express train will be along 30 minutes later and will bring you to your station at an average 70km/h with no stops.

Which train will get you there first?

Years ago a woman in Athlone would take the train to visit one of her grown children each Saturday, either Máire in Galway or Seán in Dublin.

She had no sense of time and would just show up at the train station randomly during the day and take the first intercity train that came along. The Galway to Dublin trains in those days were frequent and regular. The Galway train leaves Dublin on the hour every hour and the Dublin train leaves Galway on the hour every hour. 

She thought her system was fair and that she’d have an equal chance of visiting each of her children. Yet she noticed after a few years that she visited Seán twice as often as Máire.

How come?

Sunday’s puzzle: The answer

Fibonacci’s rabbits: 233 pairs

Fibonacci’s birds: three partridge, five pigeons and 22 sparrows

Come back tomorrow at 7.30pm for the answers to today’s puzzle. 

The puzzles this week have been compiled by Eoin Gill and Colm Mulcahy of Maths Week Ireland / South-East Technological University (SETU).