Tristan and Layla investigate the accidental death of an American marsupial
Tristan and Layla hit the jogging trail at 6:00 a.m. only to discover an accident victim. They confront the body of an opossum lying adjacent to the Chattanooga Railroad tracks.
Equipped with forensic tools, they immediately measure the temperature of the opossum. A healthy possum has a body temperature of 35° C but this corpse measures only 25° C. Although home-schooled, they understand the implications of Newton’s Law of Cooling.
They continue to track the opossum’s temperature, measuring again, 23 minutes later. This time the temperature of the opossum corpse has plummeted to 24.5° C. During their sunrise investigation, the ambient temperature remains rock-steady at 20° C.
Find the time t that the train clipped the innocent opossum.
Send your answer to [email protected] for a chance to win a Tucker’s ice cream gift card.
Last week’s winner was Milo Hartlaub with V = 18 miles per hour.
Author’s note: Opossums do not “play dead.” They actually have a form of narcolepsy—fear or excitement causes them to faint.
Jeff Smith is a former Math teacher and a retired US Navy Lieutenant Commander. Reach him at [email protected].
