Brachistochrone is a Greek word which translates to the shortest time, and it refers to one of the questions posed by one of the Bernoulli’s brothers; Johann Bernoulli. If you want to move from point A to B in the quickest time possible what is the shortest time you can take. Most people will assume that the straight line will be the shortest and will take the least time which isn’t true.

Listen to the solution to this problem by Steven Strogatz here.