Two schoolgirls were traveling from the city to a dacha (summer cottage) on an electric train.
“I notice,” one of the girls said, “that the dacha trains coming in the opposite direction pass us every 5 minutes. What do you think-how many dacha trains arrive in the city in an hour, given equal speeds in both directions?”
“Twelve, of course,” the other girl answered, “because 60 divided by 5 equals 12.”
The first girl did not agree. What do you think?
If the girls had been on a standing train, the first girl’s calculations would have been correct, but their train was moving.
It took 5 minutes to meet a second train, but then it took the second train 5 more minutes to reach where the girls met the first train. So the time between trains is 10 minutes, not 5, and only 6 trains per hour arrive in the city.