Help with math problem!

IMO D

AS per my understanding; the worm ate 4 books completly and the front cover of the last book + back cover of the first book.
each book is 1.5 inch thick.

4 books = 6 inch
front cover= .25 inch
last cover for the first book= .25 inch
I am getting a total of 6.5 inches.
which is none of the options. either i am misinterprating the question or something is missing in the question.
Would be great if somebody else will look into this.
thanks in advance.

The worm has not travelled all the pages and the back cover of the last book & the cover of the first book, which means he has not travelled one book in total.That means he has travelled 5 books in total.

Distance for one book = 1inch + 1/4 inch + 1/4 inch = 3/2 inch.

Distance for 5 books = 5*3/2 = 7.5 inches.

ANS is B.

What is the original ans

Guys,

I have tried to put down the question into a symbolic picture, as I understand it.

|--y||---||---||---||---||x--|

One book is pair of pipes(|) and its 1 inch thickness depicted by the dashes(-). The worm supposedly starts from 'x' and stops at 'y'.

Now if every | is 1/4 inches and every book is 1 inch, the worm travels a total of 10*1/4 = 2.5 inches + 4*1 = 6.5 inches.

Which unfortunately is not an option

Zinc,

Would request you yo clarify if our depiction is wrong, and tell us the correct answer to this one.


Cheers,
Vivek.

Consider the arrangement as follows:
|-||-||-||-||-||-|
the - represents 1 inch thick pages
the | represents cover (front or back... both have same thickness - .25 inch)

Total distance travelled = (6*1)+(5*.25)+(5*.25)
= 6+1.25+1.25 = 8.5 inches
6*1: for 1 inch thick pages.
5*.25: 5 front covers will be passed by the worm (2nd book to 6th book only).
5*.25: 5 back covers (1st book to 5th book only)

Answer D = 8.5

mohitsharda wrote:Consider the arrangement as follows:
|-||-||-||-||-||-|
the - represents 1 inch thick pages
the | represents cover (front or back... both have same thickness - .25 inch)

Total distance travelled = (6*1)+(5*.25)+(5*.25)
= 6+1.25+1.25 = 8.5 inches
6*1: for 1 inch thick pages.
5*.25: 5 front covers will be passed by the worm (2nd book to 6th book only).
5*.25: 5 back covers (1st book to 5th book only)

Answer D = 8.5

Mohitsharda,

I hope you noticed the worm travels from the first page of the last book to the last page of the first book, which means it avoided travelling the 1 inch of the last book and the same of the first book.

Cheers,
Vivek