# An interesting mathematical question

If a gas station is 1 mile away from my house and the average person walks 5mph. Its a sunny day and no wind. Why does it take my dad 15 years to come back from the gas station?

## 3 Answers

Apple maps accidentally sent him in the wrong direction. He is walking to the gas station across the globe the "long way". The circumference of the Earth is 24901 miles, so he had to walk $$24901 - 1 = 24900$$ miles.

• I'm assuming 24900 miles would take him 15 years? – iiRosie1 Dec 24 '18 at 0:49
• @iiRosie1 Probably 1 year if we're being reasonable. I'm just trying to come up with a funny solution. – Display name Dec 24 '18 at 0:50
• Ninja'd... 24900 mi / 5(mi/hr)= 5880 hrs, or 245 days...about 8 months. – Zomulgustar Dec 24 '18 at 0:51
• He may walk at 5mi/hr, but how fast does he swim? No great circle is on land entirely – deep thought Dec 24 '18 at 0:56
• Or we can just say that my dad left. Its okay. I am a big boy now. I won't cry. Not at all. Definitely not. Okay maybe a little. Please stop. sob Dad, why did you leave? sob Why? Full on bawling ensures – Mohammad Zuhair Khan Dec 24 '18 at 3:24

Assuming that the metrics provided are correct and your dad's intellect is not weak enough to take the long way as pointed in another answer(or any longer way for that matter), one possible solution is that you are living on a planet where 12 minutes is 15 years.

Well, there're a couple easy answers.

First of all, let's concentrate on the word "average". Average person walks 5mph, but your dad isn't average is he? Oh no, far from it. So any length of time will be possible.

Another solution is "house".

The gas station is a mile from your house, but where are you and your dad at? Another country probably. It's gonna take him some time to go all the way to that gas station and then back to where you are...

By the way, I saw some comments about people calculating how long it will take to walk around the Earth.

Surely you don't expect a human to walk non-stop 24 hours a day? A hard hiking pace is about 20 miles per day, less if you're going uphill. Then you'll have to consider all the food you'll need to eat. Does the dad have money to just buy everything, or will he need to hunt? There are places that don't have any stores around, so he'll have to hunt / gather. Weather conditions may vary. The pace is dramatically reduced for all these considerations.

• Welcome to Puzzling SE! This is a creative answer, however, an answer has been already accepted, indicating that there is not a need for newer ones. Always great to have multiple perspectives though – North Feb 22 at 5:26
• Remember you can add spoiler tags by puttting >! infront of your text! – North Feb 22 at 5:27