The Impossible Physics Problem

Here's a simple appearing and yet impossible physics problem that you can give to people that have trouble understanding that all motion is relative.

You awake to find yourself in a box. Inside the box with you are a stopwatch, a compass, and a laser range finder. The box has a small slit set halfway up and in the centre of each of the four walls. Peering through these slits you can see that you are adrift on an ocean, with nothing in sight except for another four boxes, each one only visible through one of the four slits.

Using your compass you are able to determine that the box is orientated so that the walls are to your north, south, east, and west. Using the stopwatch and rangefinder you are about to determine your change in distance to each of the other boxes over the course of a minute. These are as follows. Multiple checks show that this change is consistent.

The north box -3m
The south box +2m
The west box +4m
The east box +1m

Using the above information, determine how fast your box is drifting through the ocean, and in which direction.

via International Skeptics Forum https://ift.tt/3jDZMNY