An ant had to travel from one corner of a room to diagonally
opposite corner. It can walk on walls, floor and roof only.
How will you find the shortest path for this ant ?

Answers were Sorted based on User's Feedback



An ant had to travel from one corner of a room to diagonally opposite corner. It can walk on walls,..

Answer / kelley w.

The room is a rectangular prism (like a cube only
rectangular). The 4 floor corners will be represented by
A,B, C, and D. The ceiling corners will be represented by
E, F, G, and H, with E being directly above A, F being
directly above B, Gbeing directly above C, and H being
directly above D. (Draw a picture, it helps) the ant needs
to go from the floor corner A to the ceiling corner G (if
I’m not mistaken). The shortest path would be a diagonal
line from A to G, but seeing as the ant cannot walk on air,
we have to find the quickest path using the walls, floor
and ceiling.
F__________G
/| /|
/B|________/_|C
E/_________H/ /
| / | /
|/_________| /
A D

The ant has four logical choices:

1) He could cross diagonally from A to C, then crawl
up the wall to G. We would have to find the length of
diagonal AC and the height of the room, which would be CG.
(He could also crawl up from A to E, and then diagonally
from E to G, but this would be the same distance as the
aforementioned choice.)
2) He could cross along the wall from A to D, then
crawl diagonally up the wall from D to G. We would have to
find the width of the room, which would be AD, and the
length of diagonal DG.
(He could also go diagonally from A to F, and then crawl
along the ceiling from F to G, but that would be the same
distance as the aforementioned choice.)
3) He could cross along the floor from A to B, then
crawl diagonally from B to G. We would have to find the
length of the room, which would be AB, and the length of
diagonal BG.
(He could also go diagonally from A to H, and then crawl
along the ceiling from H to G, but that would be the same
distance as the aforementioned choice.)
4) He could cross along the wall from A to the
midpoint of DH, then continue from the midpoint of DH to G.
We’ll call the midpoint of DH “M”. We would have to find
the width of the room, which would be AD, and half the
height of the room, which would be DM and HM. We would then
have to find the length of the diagonal AM, and then the
length of the diagonal MG.
(He could also go diagonally from A to the midpoint of BF
and then diagonally to G, but this would be the same
distance as the aforementioned choice.)
Using common sense, we can see that choice 4 will be the
quickest route for the ant. If you have trouble seeing how
this option is quickest, make up fake dimensions for the
room and find the values I mentioned above for each choice
to determine the shortest distance.
(For example, pretend the room is 5 feet high, 10 feet
wide, and 20 long. AE=5, AD=10, and AB=20.)

Is This Answer Correct ?    43 Yes 12 No

An ant had to travel from one corner of a room to diagonally opposite corner. It can walk on walls,..

Answer / hemant from india

1. sqrt((a+b)^2+c^2),
2. sqrt((b+c)^2+a^2)
3. sqrt((c+a)^2+b^2)
which one is smaller in these is right answer

cos ant travels only thorough plane so , just unfold cuboid
u will find u have to add 2 dimensions and third dimension
in perpendicular direction and gets this ans

Is This Answer Correct ?    36 Yes 8 No

An ant had to travel from one corner of a room to diagonally opposite corner. It can walk on walls,..

Answer / dhruv saksena

The ant will walk to the midpoint of the edge touching the corner opposite diagonally on the floor. From the mid point it will travel directly to its destination corner. this is the shortest distance possible for it to travel.

This can be calculated using a combination of differentiation and the Pythagoras theorem, it was in my test.

Is This Answer Correct ?    10 Yes 5 No

An ant had to travel from one corner of a room to diagonally opposite corner. It can walk on walls,..

Answer / guest

Shortest path is always a straight line.
So do flat the room walls and floor and draw a straight line
between the opposite corners of the room. If room is not
cubical then that line will not pass through any edge of room.

Is This Answer Correct ?    24 Yes 23 No

An ant had to travel from one corner of a room to diagonally opposite corner. It can walk on walls,..

Answer / jawahir kashim

Unfold the 3D cuboid into 2D. Let (A B C D,E F G H) be the edges of the cuboid.Such that A is below E and others edges resp.Unfold such that point A and its diagonal are in the same plane. The straight line joining A and G ie the diagonal in 2D is the shortest line.

Is This Answer Correct ?    2 Yes 4 No

An ant had to travel from one corner of a room to diagonally opposite corner. It can walk on walls,..

Answer / avinash singh

shortest distance in a cube is diognaly. but ant cant fly. she can travel in a flor or roof diognaly from one corner to another one. and one side.
ex= if side is given 3. so diognaly on floor distance is 3 under root 2. and add one side is 3. so total distance is 3(1+under root 2).

Is This Answer Correct ?    3 Yes 5 No

An ant had to travel from one corner of a room to diagonally opposite corner. It can walk on walls,..

Answer / suda

Insteatd of moving on wall and roof,If the ant moves in a
straight way in floor,it can reach the opp.corner
diagonally and it would be the shortest path for the ant.

Is This Answer Correct ?    24 Yes 28 No

An ant had to travel from one corner of a room to diagonally opposite corner. It can walk on walls,..

Answer / devangini

There is no restriction on the way the ant can walk.

Consider the cuboid given in answer 3 and let X be the
midpoint of the surface ABCD. now the ant can walk from A to
X, X to D and D to G.

Is This Answer Correct ?    1 Yes 6 No

An ant had to travel from one corner of a room to diagonally opposite corner. It can walk on walls,..

Answer / guru

I tried with above 10,20, and % dimensions.But the shortest
is to move diagonally across the 2 longest dimensioned wall
(10 & 10) and then move straight..(5)

So its sqrt(10^2+20^2)+5 = 27.36
if you take any other method its beyond 30.2

So A to C and then G is shortest

Is This Answer Correct ?    1 Yes 10 No

Post New Answer

More Puzzles Interview Questions

You have a bucket of jelly beans. Some are red, some are blue, and some green. With your eyes closed, pick out 2 of a like color. How many do you have to grab to be sure you have 2 of the same? You have a bucket of jelly beans. Some are red, some are blue, and some green. With your eyes closed, pick out 2 of a like color. How many do you have to grab to be sure you have 2 of the same?

3 Answers  


in a family there are 5 members viz. parents and 3 children. the member are A,B,C,D AND E out of which 2 are males and 3 are females. A has 3 childerns, 2 daughters and 1 son. c in B's son. A in D's father. 1.how is E related to B? 2.who is D's mother? give me solution plese.

2 Answers  


there is one flower in the basket on the frist day and it doubles on each day if it get full on 30th day then on what day it will be half?

14 Answers   eClerx,


What is the ten letter country 8 9 10 represents god 8 9 6 is type of music 4 7 10 is a type of liquor if u dont know the answer u are 10 5 1 ?

5 Answers   Infosys,


John lives in "Friends Society" where all the houses are in a row and are numbered sequentially starting from 1. His house number is 109. Jessy lives in the same society. All the house numbers on the left side of Jessy's house add up exactly the same as all the house numbers on the right side of her house. What is the number of Jessy's house? Find the minimal possible answer.

1 Answers  






1 bird ko fish se pyar ho gaya. wo dono mile to kaise? fish paani ko chhod nahi sakti aur bird paani me ja nahi sakta.

5 Answers   Syscon,


There are 3 friends X,Y,Z having some chocolates each. X Gives Y and Z as many chocolates as they already have. After some days Y gives X and Z as many chocolates as they have. After some days Z gives X and Y as many chocolates as they have. Finally each has 24 chocolates. What is the original No. of chocolates each had in the beginning?

6 Answers   TCS,


1. There are six columns of coins and there are eight coins in each column. One of the columns is entirely of fake coins and other five columns contain real coins. Weight of one fake coin is 1 gm more than the real coin which is 50 gm. How you can tell which column contains fake coin by single weight? 2.You want to purchase a two wheeler. You got three options from the counter. 1) Pay Rs. 40,400 on single payment 2) Pay Rs. 20,000 now and remaining by two equal annual installment of Rs. 11,600 3) Pay Rs. 15,000 now and remaining by three equal annual installment of Rs. 10,000 Which option is most attractive? (Take annual interest rate 9%)

4 Answers  


There is a family party consisting of two fathers, two mothers, two sons, one father-in-law, one mother-in-law, one daughter-in-law, one grandfather, one grandmother and one grandson. What is the minimum number of persons required so that this is possible?

1 Answers  


Can u pl send me the model question paper or previous 5 year question paper for South Indian Bank's clericl post.Pl do send it to my mailId:nan_april4@yahoo.co.in

1 Answers  


I can take a bca student instead of you then why should i hire you

10 Answers  


An ant had to travel from one corner of a room to diagonally opposite corner. It can walk on walls, floor and roof only. How will you find the shortest path for this ant ?

9 Answers   Analog Devices, Cadence, TCS, ZS Associates,


Categories