I'm freshly back from an extended weekend of playing tourist while
following my wife to a conference in Washington DC and I'm still catching
up on the accumulated email. While in DC another question about the worm
problem occurred to me. It is relatively simple to answer, but the answer
is, at least at first, a little surprising. Here it is:
For what fraction of the total time is the absolute distance between the
worm and the tractor increasing?
P.S. On the subject of interesting problems, I highly recommend Chip's
recent contribution regarding the subsequent motion of four charged bodies
released at rest from the corners of a square with the bodies at the ends
of each diagonal having the same mass and charge. This is a VERY
interesting problem with some correspondingly interesting possible
motions. While I can pretty much tell you qualitatively what will happen
for any given choice of masses and charges, I'm still struggling to find
any analytic way of solving the problem.
John
----------------------------------------------------------------
A. John Mallinckrodt email: mallinckrodt@csupomona.edu
Professor of Physics voice: 909-869-4054
Cal Poly Pomona fax: 909-869-5090
Pomona, CA 91768 office: Building 8, Room 223
web: http://www.sci.csupomona.edu/~mallinckrodt/