Continuing from last week’s episode …
The shadows lengthened rapidly as dusk began to fall.
The *clack clack clack* of the Maths Tutor’s killer 5-inch Jimmy Choo stilettos echoed off the concrete walls as she made her way towards the elevator down the corridor, each step an excruciating twist of an imaginary dagger deeper into his wounded heart.
The Ah Beng cut a lonely figure as he watched, forlornly, her lithe figure receding gradually into the distance … along with his hopes … leaving him with a profound feeling of loss …
But loss often leads to suffering, suffering leads to anger, and anger leads to hate. And suddenly a voice whispered in his head,
Oh my mighty Smiling 哥 of this sprawling GRC, how can you stomach this? No one here has ever said NO to you! What would the others say?
He eyes began to narrow as he unwittingly gripped the mandarin orange tighter and tighter …
Remember what the Maths Tutor taught her students? When all seem lost and no matter how difficult the exam is, never hand in a blank paper! At least write something to score some working marks! NEVER GIVE UP!!!
Consumed by the Dark Side rage, he crushed the poor mandarin orange and threw it violently to the floor (to the shock of the watching kaypoh aunties), and decided that not only will he NOT give up, he’ll make sure he gets his Maths Tutor by any means necessary.
.
.
.
Meanwhile the sickening sound of that splattered mandarin orange startled the Maths Tutor, who couldn’t wait for the elevator door to open while the Ah Beng calmly began calling his henchmen on his phone …
As all his usual henchmen are busily gambling away at the new Sentosa Casino, the only one available is a young fresh ‘recruit’ who happens to be hanging around nearby.
From the GPS application on his phone, the Ah Beng marks out his HDB flat’s location as X. His lone henchman is currently situated at Y which is due east of X. He spots the Maths Tutor’s car parked at Z which is on a bearing 210° from X. X, Y and Z all lie on horizontal ground. The Maths Tutor enters the elevator at a point T which is directly and vertically above X, with the angle of elevation of T from Y being 17°. On his GPS map with a scale of 1 : 5000, XY = 5 cm and XZ = 6 cm.
To catch the Maths Tutor, the henchman needs to reach her car at Z before she does. But the henchman is unfamiliar with the territory, and only has a small 20-cent compass he extorted from a kid in the neighbourhood. Find
- the actual distance between Y and Z (in m).
- the bearing he must tell his henchman in order for the latter to locate the car.
Assuming the henchman sets off for the car at a constant speed of 3 m/s along YZ the moment the elevator (with the tutor on board) begins its uninterrupted descent from T at a constant speed of 1.9 m/s to the ground floor at X, afterwhich she removes her Jimmy Choos and runs straight for the car along XZ at a constant speed of 2.5 m/s, who will reach the car first?
Will Loi Loi escape? Or will Smiling 哥 finally have her in his clutches?
Stay tuned for the next episode after someone solves the (cheong hei) math questions above!
