Problem:
Henry the donkey has a very long piece of pasta. He takes a number of bites of pasta, each time eating inches of pasta from the middle of one piece. In the end, he has pieces of pasta whose total length is inches.What is the length, in inches, of the piece of pasta he started with?
Answer Choices:
A.
B.
C.
D.
E.
Solution:
Each bite increases the number of pieces of pasta by , so to end with pieces of pasta, Henry must have taken bites. Those bites led him to eat inches of pasta. There were inches of pasta remaining at the end, so the length of the piece he started with was inches.
Answer: .
The problems on this page are the property of the MAA's American Mathematics Competitions