Would you rather attend one horse-sized or one hundred duck-sized Sunday Game Nights?

From: Nathan
To: Game Friends

Game Friends,

1. A train departs Philadelphia, bound for Seattle, at noon on Saturday. Later that day, a train departs Seattle bound for Philadelphia at 10:40 AM. The Philadelphia-to-Seattle train travels at a speed of 40 miles per hour, and the Seattle-to-Philadelphia train travels at a speed of 60 miles per hour. If there are 3100 miles of track between the two cities, what time is it in Seattle when the two trains meet?

2. Due to a mechanical error, the Seattle-to-Philadelphia train is traveling on the westbound tracks and will collide with the Philadelphia-to-Seattle train. You have the ability to pull a lever and divert the Seattle-to-Philadelphia train onto a different set of tracks, on which a school bus full of children has stalled. The only person on the Philadelphia-to-Seattle train is a terrorist who has placed a bomb on the Seattle-to-Philadelphia train that will explode if the speed drops below 50 miles per hour. That’s why the Seattle-to-Philadelphia train is going so fast. You and the lever are on the Seattle-to-Philadelphia train. Do you pull the lever?

3. Actually, it’s a metaphor. The collision of the trains represents the explosive fun of Sunday Game Night. The lever represents your choice to attend or not. The school bus full of children represents my hopes and dreams. The unstoppable progress of the Seattle-to-Philadelphia train represents the inevitable passage of time. The terrorist is a dated pop culture reference. Anyways, what do you do? Ethically, I mean.

From: Abe
To: Game Friends

1. 5:00 obviously. ;) A hundred minute head start (including the time difference - tricky!) on the Seattle-bound train removes 40 MPH * 1.67 H = 66.67 miles of track from consideration. When the trains meet the Seattle-bound train will have covered 40% of the journey (40/(40+60)). 40% of 3033.33 miles is 1213.33 miles, which it would have taken 1213.33 miles/40 MPH = 30.33 hours. 30 hours and 20 minutes after 10:40 AM on Saturday is 5:00 sharp Seattle time! [Note: however proud of myself I am for solving that, I’m more impressed that you took the time to make it up Nathan!]

2. With no other information I would pull the lever, trusting that the kids would be evacuated from the school bus as soon as it broke down. If I knew that the kids were stuck on the bus however and both choices lead to disaster, I would not pull the lever because I would rather the disaster come from being a bystander to events that were already in motion than be caused by my direct action.

3. If I want to go to Sunday Game Night I’m not clear on whether I should or should not pull the metaphorical lever, but I’ll see you there! I’ll bring Shadow Hunters and Monopoly Deal (the Monopoly Card Game). I will also bring some good old guacamole!

Abe

From: Amanda
To: Game Friends

Glad my plan of wait-for-someone-else-to-do-the-math-for-you worked. A victory for the lazy!

From: Kaitlin
To: Game Friends

1. An appropriate time for a drink.

2. Obviously I would not pull the lever and use my body to make a human bridge between the train and a helicopter enabling me to evacuate the entire train safely but not too efficiently so that, you know, things are still exciting an instant before the trains collide.

3. Metaphorically, I’m going to be not pulling lever, but pulling my oxygen mask to activate the flow of oxygen on a plane full of snakes. Then I will use the oxygen flow and an illicit lighter I smuggled through TSA to light those motherfuckers on fire and then land the plane using only the skills I obtained playing Super Mario my entire childhood. Which of course, metaphorically means that I’ll be at rehearsal Sunday night. But like, have fun with your trains or whatever.

Kaitlin