h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

How about a variation on the Classic Bear Problem?

A man goes hunting. He walks 10 miles due south but finds nothing. He decides to change his plan and walks for another ten miles, always travelling due east. Still nothing. He changes again and walks 10 miles due north. He sees a penguin and shoots it. He then realises that he is standing on exactly the same point as he started out 30 miles earlier. What species is the Penguin?

Depends what particular illegal substance the guy's been smoking/injecting...

If he's seeing penguins at the north pole then he's got a real problem

I love it when people think they know the answer! Clever, Whisky, but not clever enough.

Ok then, it could be anyone of the sub-species of penguins that could survive at a point 11.6 miles north of the south pole!

Why go round twice? I'd start at 13.2 miles from the pole myself.

Well done! It was an Emperor penguin, the only species that leaves the coast and travels inland.

No, you were right. 11.6 it is.

You sure about that?

Simpost... tut tut Gnomon, got your diameters and radii mixed up didn't you

I admit it.