A hunter walks a mile due south, turns and walks a mile due east, turns again
and walks a mile due north, only to find herself back where she started. The hunter draws a bead on a bear and shoots it dead.
What color is the bear?
Why?
Answer:
The bear you shoot will always be a polar bear, but the explanation for why this is – that the hunter must have started at the North Pole – is insufficient. While this is one possibility, the North Pole is not the only point of origin on Earth that satisfies the conditions presented in the problem. Can you think of any other point (or points) on the globe from which the hunter could begin her journey and find herself back at her original location?
Any point that is 1 + 1/(2 π) miles north of the South Pole will satisfy the conditions of this riddle’s setup.
The reasoning is as follows: There is a line of latitude near the South Pole with a circumference of one mile. If one begins at a point 1+1/(2 π) miles north of the South Pole and walks one mile south, she will find herself on the mile-round line of latitude; walking one mile east will therefore bring her in a complete circle around the pole, such that when she turns and walks a mile north, she finds herself right back where she started.