Space Riddle #4

Your Orion capsule (CEV) suffers a control malfunction while returning from Mars. It lands somewhere on Earth.

You open the hatch, get out and walk 1 km south. Seeing nothing of interest, you then walk 1 km east.

Suddenly you see a bear, so you run 1 km north, get back in your capsule and close the hatch.

QUESTION: What colour is the bear?

white

I guess I'll go for white as well

Reasoning?

You landed at the North pole because that is the only place where you could walk 1km south, 1km east and then 1km north to return to your starting location. So it must be a polar bear.

That's the correct answer, but your first statement is not correct.

Where else, on Earth, can you walk 1km south, 1km east and then 1km north to return to your starting location?

You can do the same anywhere 1+1/(N*2*PI) kilometres from the South pole, where N is a positive integer. But there are no bears to be found there. I suppose you might be able to do the same another place with a big magnet and polar bears. I wonder where that might be...

I should have thought of that since I had basically the same question on an astronomy test many years ago. However since there are no polar bears at the south pole, you still have to be at the north pole for biological, if not geometric, reasons.