Problem Solving - Rows of Officers

Question

"An officer wished to form his men into twelve rows, with eleven men in every row, so that

he could place himself at a point that would be equidistant (same distant) from every row.

"But there are only one hundred and twenty of us, sir," said one of the men. Was it possible

to carry out the order?"

It would be lovely if I could have the answer to this question ASAP.

Answer 1

12 rows of 11 men each means 12x11 = 121 men total

The officer positions himself at the center of a clockl-ike formation, with a row emanating outward at each of the hours 1 o'clock, 2 o'clock through 12 o'clock. ear row forms like a ray or spoke in a bicycle wheel.

If there are only 120 men, then the officer will count himself as part of one of the rows, as there are only enough men for 11 rows of 11 men plus 10 men for the 12th row

but then he's not equidistant to all 12 rows, if he's part of one of them. He's equidistant to 11 rows and zero distance from the 12th row. But if he stood right next to each man in each end of each row, he would be a distance of zero from each, and a distance of zero from himself and that would be equidistant?

so it seems impossible, short of a strange way of equating zero distances, unless the man who said there's only 120 of us was mistaken and miscounted, off by 1, or they come up with another man from somewhere.

OR, the 12 rows could be essentially around a circle or like a 12 sided polygon, with the officer in the middle of the polygon, equidistant from each row. two of the rows could share one man who is in both rows at the same time.