nor touched by a boy

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nor touched by a boy

by sanju09 » Thu Oct 14, 2010 5:50 am
There are p posts set at equal distance along an array, which are either to be touched or traversed by b boys one after the other. First boy would start from the first post at the farthest start point and would run along the array to touch the nth post from the start before leaving the march, n < p. The next boy would do the same to touch the (n + 1) th pole from the start before leaving the march, and the practice continues till all the boys have traversed and touched 1 extra post than the previous boy. If there are still 5 posts left that are neither traversed nor touched by a boy, then what is p in terms of n and b?
(A) n - b + 4
(B) n + b - 4
(C) n - b + 6
(D) n + b - 6
(E) n + b + 4


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by neerajkumar1_1 » Thu Oct 14, 2010 7:49 am
is it E) n + b + 4

???
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by sanju09 » Thu Oct 14, 2010 11:12 pm
neerajkumar1_1 wrote:is it E) n + b + 4

???
yeah; reasoning?
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by neerajkumar1_1 » Fri Oct 15, 2010 12:06 am
sanju09 wrote:
neerajkumar1_1 wrote:is it E) n + b + 4

???
yeah; reasoning?
see the figure i had attached...

every boy touches from the first post to the nth post..
and each additional one touches one more than the previous one..

since there are b boys... so the bth boy will touch n+ b th pole...
and now since there are 5 left including the pth pole... there will be 4 poles between n+bth pole and the pth pole...
p = n + b + 4

also if u see among the answer choices... we need p = n + b + some number...

since only E has that option... so E... :)