Overshooting the Mark
It's time for a new puzzler. I wish we had a good one to share, but we have this one instead.
Our old mechanic Crusty, after he left us, he decided to tour the United States. And from time to time he would correspond with us.
He was living in a boxcar in a train yard someplace in Pennsylvania. And he said, "Gee, guys, I've noticed an interesting phenomenon about freight trains. Freight trains frequently have to stop to discharge cargo from the train cars. And the train has to stop at a loading and unloading dock. And it's important that the car winds up in exactly the right spot. So that they can open the door, and use a forklift to empty the train car of its cargo. And once they are done, the train takes off."
He said, "I've noticed that in almost every case, the train stops and they miss the dock. They go passed it and then, they back up. And when they back up, they hit it right on the nose. Now, why couldn't they kind of just ease up to it real slowly? They could slow down in anticipation of the stop and hit it right on the nose. But they don't do this. They go passed it and back up. They do this all the time!"
And he thought it was kind of interesting. He said, "I know why they do it. Do you?"
They are purposefully overshooting the mark.
Why do they do that?
