Six particles at the corner of a regular hexagon of a side 'a' move at a constant speed 'v'. Each particle maintains a direction towards the particle at the next corner.
Calculate the time the particles will take to meet each other.

Question

Six particles at the corner of a regular hexagon of a side 'a' move at a constant speed 'v'. Each particle maintains a direction towards the particle at the next corner.
Calculate the time the particles will take to meet each other.

maheshmeghwal9 · Answer

@amistre64 @asnaseer @FoolAroundMath Please help:)

foolaroundmath · Answer

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The easiest approach (maybe non-intuitive) approach to take here is to use relative velocity.

For A to meet B, the distance between A and B must reduce from the initial value 'a' to zero.
Now for the relative velocity part.
Assume you are 'A'. You see 'B' moving away from you at a speed of ____ along the side of the hexagon and _____ perpendicular to the side of the hexagon.
The time taken = distance along the side of teh hexagon / rel speed along the side of the hexagon