  In 1941 a mechanical problem about a rod in a moving train (there is a
initial position such that rod does not touch the floor while train is moving)
was published by R.Courant and H.Robbins in their popular book "What is
mathematics?" and attributed to H.Whitney. Many mathematicians, including
G.E.Littlewood, A.Broman, T.Poston, I.Stewart, V.Arnold, commented on this
problem and its solution based on a continuity argument, and created a lot of
confusion. In this paper we follow these developments and discuss at what
extent the objections were justified. (In Russian)
