Question

There are more than 1/4 million species of beetle. Assume the average length of a beetle is 1cm and the average walking speed is 10 cm per second. These beetles walk up a gang-plank that is 5 meters long onto an ark. They do this in pairs, side by side, one male and one female from each species. The pairs of beetles are spaced 5 cm apart. How many hours will it take for 1/4 million species of beetles to embark onto the ark once the first pair starts up the gangplank?

Answer 1

Answer:

It will take approximately 41.68 hours for 1/4 million species of beetles to embark onto the ark once the first pair starts up the gangplank.

Explanation:

The length of the column will be $250000\times 6$cm (if there's 5 cm between them, not 5 cm from center to center, that wasn't clarified)

L = 1500000 cm

At 10 cm/sec, it will take 150000 seconds to pass the bottom of the gang-plank  + $\frac{500}{10}$ seconds for them to go up the gang-plank.

150050 seconds total

t = $\frac{15005}{6}$minutes

t =$\frac{3001}{72}$ hours

t =~ 41.68 hours

Since, it will take approximately 41.68 hours for 1/4 million species of beetles to embark onto the ark once the first pair starts up the gangplank.