Partial solutions from members Bradley University community came from Kris
Buckert, Mickey Lenisa. Complete solutions came in from Aaron Kahn, Lou
Cairoli, Iñigo Picaza.
Most submissions assumed that the band was stretched evenly in
both directions in which case, yes, the midpoint wouldn't move. However,
this assumption is both unwarranted and unnecessary.
Place a coordinate system on the rubber band with its left-
and right-most endpoints at -1 and +1. Define a
function s: [-1,1]
®
R as follows: s(x) is the final coordinate, after stretching,
of the point whose initial coordinate was x. Notice that the
function s is
continuous, and because the right end of the band is stretched right and the
left end is stretched left we also have s(1)
³ 1
and s(-1)
£
-1. The function t(x) = s(x)
- x is continuous and satisfies t(-1)
£ 0 and
t(1)
³ 0. Therefore,
by the Intermediate Value Theorem (which we all learned in calculus class!)
there exists a point z with -1
£ z
£ 1
satisfying t(z) = 0, that is, s(z) = z, which
means that the point on the rubber band initially at coordinate z ends up
there, too.
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©2005 Alberto L. Delgado