The mystery begins
It had been a long night of too much gin and too little tonic. Seemed like the whole world was buzzing. And then she walked in. She was fly. Literally. One eye fixed on me like a golden jewel that men killed over, while the other fixed on my potato salad. "How can I help you, Ms..." "Domestica, Musca Domestica." She extended a delicate antenna. "I need you to locate these." She handed me photograph. It looked like a park bench, or maybe it was dung heap. It was hard to tell, because everything was covered with about a billion flies. "Nice composition," I said. "Who are they?" "My relatives," she replied trembling. |
A typical housefly lives 6 weeks, and can produce 120 female offspring every 2 weeks. (There are also male offspring, but since they don't reproduce directly, its easier just to count the females).
By the ripe old age of 28 days, how many granddaughters should Ms. Domestica have?
(To make this problem interactive, turn on javascript!)
- I need a hint ... :
Ms. Domestica has 120 daughters, and each of them have 120 daughters!
- I need a hint ... :
Multiply the number of daughters by the number of granddaughters each.
I think I have the answer: 14,400 granddaughters
Many facts about houseflies for this module are taken from "BUZZ OFF! THE HOUSEFLY HAS MADE A PEST OF HIMSELF FOR 25 MILLION YEARS," by Anthony DeBartolo. You can find the original article here. |
Copyright University of Maryland, 2007
You may link to this site for educational purposes.
Please do not copy without permission
requests/questions/feedback email: mathbench@umd.edu