The spider and the Fly

There is a room measuring 12x12x30ft. A spider is sitting in the middle of one of the 12x12 walls 1 foot from the floor. A fly is sitting on the opposite wall, one foot from the ceiling. What is the shortest distance the spider can take to get to the fly.

 

straight line

 

30.4138127 feet.

 

Every way I try ends up as 42

 

Depends if we're counting in human feet, spider feet, or fly feet.

 

42 feet?

 

All wrong

 

if only you used the metric system

 

It doesn't matter what system is used, because it's focused on the surface area of the prism. It's only worrying about numbers, not conversions.

 

What nap said, just focus on the numbers

 

Wait what the hell... the shortest route for the spider is to go in a straight line along the surface of the walls. He can go either 1 foot down, 30 feet forward, and 11 feet up or he can go 11 feet up, 30 feet forward, and 1 foot down. Either way it always ends up as 42.

or the fly could fly in a diagonal line to the spider...

 

Still wrong. Hint: Make the shape 2d

 

what the hell...

[Edit] oh nvm

 

Technically, the shortest distance would be going diagonally and that involves 3D movement, does it not? Oh wait, I completely forgot that spiders don't defy the laws of gravity.

 

Or you know, the fly could move...

 

I believe this math problem is assuming the spider already trapped the fly with a web that s(he) created before hand so the fly can't just move away

 

straight line

 

Oh it's correct. But did you figure how legit tho