A Problem of Flies

             The common fly is considered an appallingly prolific insect. Each female fly is capable of laying 120 eggs at a time. Out of the eggs hatched, half of them are generally females.

             The female flies hatched grow sufficiently within 20 days to lay eggs themselves.

             Assuming that the female fly lays her first eggs on the 1^st of April, can you tell how many eggs will be hatched in the course of that summer, in the seventh generation.

Answer:  1 April: A female fly lays 120 eggs. Mid-April 120 files will hatch.                     Females: 60

20 April: 60 female flies lay 120 eggs each Beginning of May 60x 120 = 7200 flies will hatch.

                                                                                                                                         Females: 3600

5 may: 3600 female flies lay 120 eggs each. Mid –May 3600x 120 = 43200 files will hatch.

                                                                                                                                      Females: 216000

25 May: 216000 females’ files lay 120 eggs each Beginning of June 216000 x 120 = 25920000 flies will hatch.                                                                                                                         Females: 12960000

14 June: 12960000 female flies lay 120 eggs each End of June 12960000 x 120 = 15552000000 flies will hatch.                                                                                                                       Females: 777600000

15 July: 777600000 female flies lay 120 eggs each Mid- July 777600000 x 120 = 93312000000 flies will hatch.                                                                                                                   Females: 46656000000

25 July: 46656000000 female flies lay 120 eggs each Beginning of August 46656000000 x 120 = 559872000000 will hatch.                                                                       Female files: 27993600000000

13 Aug: 27993600000000 female flies lay 120 eggs each. Last week of August 27993600000000 x 120 = 33592320000000 files will hatch.

Just in one summer the number of flies that would hatch would be: 33592320000000

Taking each fly to be 5 mm long, if they form a straight line, the distance covered would be2, 500000000 Kilometers – 18 times longer than the distance from the earth to the sun.