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:
Since there are pieces, there were locations where a bite was made. Since we have bites and inches are removed per bite, a total of inches were removed. With inches removed and inches remaining, we know we started with inches.
Thus, the answer is .
Answer: .
The problems on this page are the property of the MAA's American Mathematics Competitions