Railroad Track Problem

Eric W. Weisstein
January 29, 2002

This notebook downloaded from http://mathworld.wolfram.com/notebooks/RecreationalMath/RailroadTrackProblem.nb.

For more information, see Eric's MathWorld entry http://mathworld.wolfram.com/RailroadTrackProblem.html.

©2005 Wolfram Research, Inc. except for portions noted otherwise

Solve

eqn=(d(l+dl)-(d^2+l^2/4)ArcTan[d l/(l^2/4-d^2)])

Solve[eqn,d]

nd=d/.FindRoot[eqn /.{l->5280,dl->1},{d,44},WorkingPrecision->100,AccuracyGoal->50]

eqn/.{l->5280,dl->1,d->nd(1+(10^(-80)))}