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A Tale Of Three Towns

HA! Trick question! You don't have a house! You're renting an apartment! Just kidding. You live seven miles east of Alphatown, shown by the arrow on the map. If your name is Pythagoras, please continue to another puzzle. Otherwise, read on: To make the math easier, let's say we have a unit of measure called a russler, which is equal to seven miles. We have a right triangle where the shortest side is 3 russlers long (21 miles) and the next is 4 russlers long (28 miles). According to the Pythagorean theorem, the square of the long side is equal to the sum of the squares of the other two sides. 32 + 42 = 9 + 16 = 25 The square root of 25 is 5, so it's 5 russlers from Alphatown to Charlieville on Highway 30. The distance all the way around the triangle is 12 russlers, so half that distance is 6 russlers. You can travel 1 russler to Alphatown, leaving 5 more to go, or you can travel two russlers to Bravoburg and have 4 more to go. Converting back to miles, it's 42 either way. But then, Carole's a lot of fun, so it's always worth the trip! If you need more help, use my towel-free number: 800-PUZZLE MISC. PUZZLES