Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Wednesday Puzzle: The Bookworm

If you've read many puzzle books, you've probably come across this one in some form. Everyone takes a stab at their own version sooner or later, so here's mine:

A 26-volume encyclopedia set is placed, in order, on a single shelf. Each volume is 2" thick. Each cover is 1/5" thick.

If a book worm starts on the first page of the first volume, how far will he have to travel to reach the last page of the last volume.

1 comments:

Chris Mildebrandt said...

A couple of assumptions to start:

- "paced, in order" should be "placed, in order"
- "in order" means from left to right starting with the first volume
- the books are standing upright with the front face towards the right
- these are standard books that are page-turned from right to left

Answer:
24*2" + 50*0.2" = 48" + 10" = 58"

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