So this is supposed to be really simple, and it’s taken from the following picture:
Text-only:
It took Marie $10$ minutes to saw a board into $2$ pieces. If she works just as fast, how long will it take for her to saw another board into
$3$ pieces?I don’t understand what’s wrong with this question. I think the student answered the question wrong, yet my friend insists the student got the question right.
I feel like I’m missing something critical here. What am I getting wrong here?
Answer
Haha! The student probably has a more reasonable interpretation of the question.
Of course, cutting one thing into two pieces requires only one cut! Cutting something into three pieces requires two cuts!
——————————- 0 cuts/1 piece/0 minutes
—————|————— 1 cut/2 pieces/10 minutes
———|———–|——— 2 cuts/3 pieces/20 minutes
This is a variation of the “fence post” problem: how many posts do you need to build a 100 foot long fence with 10 foot sections between the posts?
Answer: 11 You have to draw the problem to get it…See below, and count the posts!
|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|
0-----10----20----30----40----50----60----70----80----90---100
Attribution
Source : Link , Question Author : yuritsuki , Answer Author : Community
