Off-topic circumnavigating the earth in a mile or less [was Re: Significant digits in a float?]

[Ian Kelly]

On Wed, Apr 30, 2014 at 7:14 AM, Ethan Furman <ethan at stoneleaf.us> wrote:
> On 04/29/2014 03:51 PM, Chris Angelico wrote:
>>
>> On Wed, Apr 30, 2014 at 8:42 AM, emile <emile at fenx.com> wrote:
>>>
>>> On 04/29/2014 01:16 PM, Adam Funk wrote:
>>>
>>>> "A man pitches his tent, walks 1 km south, walks 1 km east, kills a
>>>> bear, & walks 1 km north, where he's back at his tent.  What color is
>>>> the bear?"  ;-)
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>  From how many locations on Earth can someone walk one mile south, one
>>> mile
>>> east, and one mile north and end up at their starting point?
>>
>>
>> Any point where the mile east takes you an exact number of times
>> around the globe. So, anywhere exactly one mile north of that, which
>> is a number of circles not far from the south pole.

It also works if your starting point is (precisely) the north pole.  I
believe that's the canonical answer to the riddle, since there are no
bears in Antarctica.