|
BOOK WORM
On the shelf there is a book of two parts. The first part has 972 pages (not including cover, but anything else), the second has 864 (same)...
A curious worm ate itself thru the book starting with the front cover of the first part and until the very end of the back cover of the last part...
How many pages it perforated on the way?
Skipper: We'll fix it.
Alex: Fix it? How you gonna fix this?
Skipper: Grit, spit and a whole lotta duct tape.
modified 7-Feb-17 7:14am.
|
|
|
|
|
Pages would still be the sum. Pieces of paper would be half. Unless of course it's not an original book and someone like me prints two pages to a page in landscape mode. So pages could be halved, assuming one wormhole per paper and it didn't backtrack, and papers would be quartered. This also assumes that no other pieces of paper exist between the two books.
|
|
|
|
|
No tricks, no backtracking, no extra pages - but I do not think your answer is correct...
Skipper: We'll fix it.
Alex: Fix it? How you gonna fix this?
Skipper: Grit, spit and a whole lotta duct tape.
|
|
|
|
|
Kornfeld Eliyahu Peter wrote: but I do not think your answer is correct...
... because he forgot to count the covers.
|
|
|
|
|
Yes. But no...
He forgot the covers, but simply adding them will not give the right answer...
Skipper: We'll fix it.
Alex: Fix it? How you gonna fix this?
Skipper: Grit, spit and a whole lotta duct tape.
|
|
|
|
|
It said ignore the covers.
|
|
|
|
|
It did not, it just said a book has n pages, not counting the cover. If you mistakenly consider a cover to a page of a book, then the puzzle implies you should include covers.
|
|
|
|
|
I didn't. It said # of pages not including the covers. I said it's the total # of pages. I didn't actually give a number. So if he wanted to include the covers, he can. But in the end, his answer was zero, so the covers where not included as I surmised.
|
|
|
|
|
Book covers are not book pages.
|
|
|
|
|
A real oldie - the two book parts you noted are adjacent to one another on books "properly" shelved.
If you don't count the covers as pages, the answer is "none".
| Ravings en masse^ |
|---|
| "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein | | "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you are seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010 |
|
|
|
|
|
I wonder if this is a matter of age... 
Skipper: We'll fix it.
Alex: Fix it? How you gonna fix this?
Skipper: Grit, spit and a whole lotta duct tape.
|
|
|
|
|
And for my prize, I seem to recall that there's a Halavah stall in one of the markets (Machane Y'huda, perhaps?) - A kilo of their finest, assorted, will do for a start.
| Ravings en masse^ |
|---|
| "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein | | "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you are seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Yes - and do you mean I went through all of the time and expense of answering the question for free? That's crazy.
| Ravings en masse^ |
|---|
| "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein | | "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you are seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010 |
|
|
|
|
|
How did the worm get in the book to eat cover to cover? Wormhole? Boom tish!
|
|
|
|
|
If you try a remark like that again I'll tell O.G. on you. Don't think I won't.
What a bunch of castings . . .
| Ravings en masse^ |
|---|
| "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein | | "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you are seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010 |
|
|
|
|
|
Even I'm not that corny. 
|
|
|
|
|
I don't get it, I definitely need a drawing here.
|
|
|
|
|
OK: Drawing in your mind's eye (illustration on bottom):
Consider how a set of books is put on the shelf. Lowest volume number to the right and in sequential order.
Next imagine your in the process of taking the first volume off the shelf. It's in your hand and the front cover is to your right. So it's not on the outside edge of the volume set. The back cover of book '1' the outside cover.
In fact, for all books (not written in Hebrew or Arabic), when shelved, the left side is the back of the book and the right side is the front.
Now - for the two volume set in the problem, the back of the second book, being on the left, is now touching the front of the first book.
| | | |
| Vol 1 | | Vol 2 |
| | | |
| | | |
| | | |
| | | |
| | | |
B F B F
a r a r
c o c o
k n k n
t t
This would still be true, by the way, for books written right-to-left as their order on the shelf would be reversed, too.
| Ravings en masse^ |
|---|
| "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein | | "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you are seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Very good, if the puzzle stipulated that the worm burrowed through both volumes in one straight line.
In your drawing, the worm could very well have started between the two volumes, and burrowed to the left through the first one, then circled back to the right of the second one and burrowed left until the back cover of that one.
|
|
|
|
|
The worm could also have eaten through the bottom, went out, bought a suit, and after being elected to office hired someone to rearrange the books.
Or anything else you care type. Read the problem; whilst it is true that anything that is not excluded from the answer may come into consideration, don't embellish the problem. Also, see Occam's razor[^].
| Ravings en masse^ |
|---|
| "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein | | "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you are seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010 |
|
|
|
|
|
Aah, yes, the Razor, one of my favourite philosophising tools, but occasionally shelved for playful pickiness. 
|
|
|
|
|
Zero - assuming the books are put on the shelf in order from left to right with the spines outwards. In that case the front cover of part 1 is adjacent to the back cover of part 2, so the worm ate through the front cover of part 1 and the back cover of part 2.
|
|
|
|
|
Was it an African worm or a European one?
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
|
|
|
|
General 
News 
Suggestion 
Question 
Bug 
Answer 
Joke 
Praise 
Rant 
Admin 
Submit an article or tip
