Anyone For Ants On a Stick?

This installment of twist your noodle comes yet again from Scott Hoover of Warp Antspeed fame. To top it off it even involves more ants. Albeit they are not performing any space warps this time, just a little 'bump and grind.' Is Scott obsessed with ants or just brain teasers? We may never know, however this one was fun enough to pass along. (Personally I think it is just brainteasers ⁱ.)

First of all, you take a stick exactly ten feet long, which is more of a one-lane ant-highway if you can imagine it. Now randomly place two hundred ants, facing either end of the stick, at any position on the little ant-bypass. Start them all moving at the same time at exactly 5 feet per minute. The only rules are first, when two ants bump into each other they immediately turn and go in the opposite direction. Second, when they reach the end of the stick they fall off.

Now since you would really like to go stir up a bee's nest with your stick, how long is the longest time you will have to wait for your stick to be free of ants? ⁱⁱ

ⁱ Again my word processing software has irritated me. The grammar checker suggests that 'brain teasers' should be one word. That's fine and all until I make it so, and then it says brainteasers is spelled wrong. Can you say "catch-22 programming?" Oh well, what more can I expect from a software package called Word, definitely not something perfect! Anyway, I am too tired to dig for the truth tonight so I leave you both versions. Drop me a line if any of you dig it up.

ⁱⁱ If any of you come up with the answer and have a knack at computer programming, I'd love to see a simulation. I think it would make a cool screen saver!

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