Monday, June 21, 2010

I don't think ducks are very smart...

There were two.

Crossing the road.

Slowly.

When I saw them, I slowed down.

When they saw me coming they started waddling fast.

Away from the car...

... in the same direction I was travelling.

It made me think of problem solving in maths at school. "If you have a vehicle travelling at 60km/hr how much does it have to slow down in order to miss ducks travelling at x km/hr in the same direction?

The answer is: It depends when they work out that the waddling is just not going to help and they need to fly.

How many of the ducks did I hit?

... Approximately None!

3 comments:

Allegro ma non troppo said...

Hmm, not too bright, are they.

Then again, people do the same thing in action movies when a big rock is thundering towards them or something. Yessss, run ahead of it....

Givinya De Elba said...

According to Zeno, you'll never hit the ducks.

First, you'll have to cover half the ground between you and the ducks, by which time, they're moved on.

Then you'll have to cover half the remaining ground between you and the ducks, by which time, they've moved farther on.

Then you'll have to cover half the remaining ground between you and the ducks, by which time, they've moved farther still.

Ad infinitum, and because we can't complete an infinite number of actions in a finite time, it can't be done.

According to Zeno, you could have floored it and never have hit the ducks.

I think he went mad after thinking all this through.

Hippomanic Jen said...

As would I.