Tube Puzzle

Originally posted by lausey
Some platforms you can use the mobile because they are above ground. Maybe that is a subtle clue to people who know the London underground well enough. 🙂

Thinking about it, I don't think there is any circle line platform that is above ground so that ruins my theory. 😛

Edgware Rd is on the Circle and above ground. Also the platform at Paddington is partially open and you can get a decent signal.

I don't see how it helps with the problem, but......

Originally posted by celticcountry
My wife and I regularly get on the same Tube in London at the same time.Monday to Friday.

We get off together and arrive home together.We live Right next to the Tube station.

The day in question.

As she gets on ,I drop my mobile phone and it bounces away from the train..

By the time I have picked it up the doors have closed and the train i ...[text shortened]... e station as she did.I took exaclty the same route as I always do.

How come I was home first?

Hmm...

This is how I read the problem. You and your wife are trying to get from A to B, and there's only one route (no parallel branches). Several trains run from A to B, but they do so in a first-come-first-serve queue, so no train will ever overtake another train. If all of that's true, then you would never catch up to your wife who boarded a train ahead of you. Therefore, you wouldn't arrive home first.

Now, if those assumptions aren't true, or if there's something tricky about what happens off the trains, then you might get home first. The most reasonable guess is that there's some kind of parallel path from A to B, as the other posters alluded to. Or, there could be something tricky in the way you worded the question. I believe your wording leaves open the possiblity of you two boarding the train from home to work, leaving the return trip completely without detail (maybe you left work early).

But I dunno. What's the answer?

How about if the wife got off the train from the carriage which has the greatest distance to the platform / station exit....... and the husband got off the train from the carriage which has the least distance to the platform / station exit.

This assumes a really long platform or the second train coming in very soon after the first. Allowing the husband to get infront of his wife due to the distance required to walk to leave the station.

Right or wrong?

Originally posted by timebombted
How about if the wife got off the train from the carriage which has the greatest distance to the platform / station exit....... and the husband got off the train from the carriage which has the least distance to the platform / station exit.

This assumes a really long platform or the second train coming in very soon after the first. Allowing the husban ...[text shortened]... nfront of his wife due to the distance required to walk to leave the station.

Right or wrong?

If you ask me, I'd say that's plausible. How 'bout it, cc?

Originally posted by timebombted
How about if the wife got off the train from the carriage which has the greatest distance to the platform / station exit....... and the husband got off the train from the carriage which has the least distance to the platform / station exit.

This assumes a really long platform or the second train coming in very soon after the first. Allowing the husban ...[text shortened]... nfront of his wife due to the distance required to walk to leave the station.

Right or wrong?

I think he has said "Same start and finish platform " - so they would have to pass through each other for you to get ahead, unless....

I'm thinking that the platform is the end of the line - Then one train might end behind the other in the way that you say.

How about Celticcountry actually posts his solution, which will undoubtedly be torn to pieces after he reveals he messed up the question.

Originally posted by PBE6
How about Celticcountry actually posts his solution, which will undoubtedly be torn to pieces after he reveals he messed up the question.

LMAO

Originally posted by timebombted
How about if the wife got off the train from the carriage which has the greatest distance to the platform / station exit....... and the husband got off the train from the carriage which has the least distance to the platform / station exit.

This assumes a really long platform or the second train coming in very soon after the first. Allowing the husban ...[text shortened]... nfront of his wife due to the distance required to walk to leave the station.

Right or wrong?

Thats it.

Here is the solution.

My wife gets on the train, she gets on the front carriage. (nearest the driver.If you like).

The train speds off.

I know I have 2 and a half minutes to wait and I am a little anxious about my wife being alone on the underground.I pace up and down.

3 minutes later , my train arrives. I get on .It just so happens its the rear carriage.

When I get to the very next station . Our stop . I get off.

Because I get off the rear carriage ,Its right next to my home.

My wife got off the front carrige.

Its a long long platform.

As she is walking down home. My train pulls up. I get off climb up the stairway. out side and into my home .It is the very Building.

My wife on the other hand. Has a good long trek down the platform.

Hope you all enjoyed the puzzle.

Thanks for you input.

Originally posted by celticcountry
Thats it.

Here is the solution.

My wife gets on the train, she gets on the front carriage. (nearest the driver.If you like).

The train speds off.

I know I have 2 and a half minutes to wait and I am a little anxious about my wife being alone on the underground.I pace up and down.

3 minutes later , my train arrives. I get on .It just so ...[text shortened]... a good long trek down the platform.

Hope you all enjoyed the puzzle.

Thanks for you input.

So obvious when revealed. Surprised no one got it.

Originally posted by lausey
So obvious when revealed. Surprised no one got it.

What are you talking about? Timebombted did. But I still have a hard time believing it takes more time to exit a station from the wrong end than to travel by train from one station to another. Who built these death traps, M.C. Escher? And if you take into account the fact that your wife was "suprised to find you home first", she must not have seen you walking ahead of her. That's got to add at least another 15 seconds to your head start. This whole setup stinks - it stinks, I tells ya, stinks!!

Originally posted by PBE6
What are you talking about? Timebombted did. But I still have a hard time believing it takes more time to exit a station from the wrong end than to travel by train from one station to another. Who built these death traps, M.C. Escher? And if you take into account the fact that your wife was "suprised to find you home first", she must not have seen you walki ...[text shortened]... her 15 seconds to your head start. This whole setup stinks - it stinks, I tells ya, stinks!!

London is full of suprised partners seeing their spouses already at home.

It does stink.

Thats what I was hoping to expose.

Originally posted by PBE6
What are you talking about? Timebombted did.

Oops, missed that.

Originally posted by celticcountry
Thats it.

Here is the solution.

My wife gets on the train, she gets on the front carriage. (nearest the driver.If you like).

The train speds off.

I know I have 2 and a half minutes to wait and I am a little anxious about my wife being alone on the underground.I pace up and down.

3 minutes later , my train arrives. I get on .It just so ...[text shortened]... a good long trek down the platform.

Hope you all enjoyed the puzzle.

Thanks for you input.

It's a long, long, three minute walk long platform? Weak.

Originally posted by FreakyKBH
It's a long, long, three minute walk long platform? Weak.

We agree twice in one day.

Isn't that in Revelation somewhere.........

Originally posted by Nemesio
We agree twice in one day.

Isn't that in Revelation somewhere.........

Actually, you were probably thinking of this little tidbit from Isaiah 11:

"And a wolf hath sojourned with a lamb,
And a leopard with a kid doth lie down,
And calf, and young lion, and fatling together,
And a little youth is leader over them."

And, not to be too picky, but it is technically a new day, today.
😉