Oct 23, 2021
My brother has written three books. The Collected Works of Thomas Q. Magliozzi, right. It's actually one book, which consists of three volumes while Volume One, Volume Two, and Volume Three.
They're on the shelf in order one, two, and three. Now a bookworm is going to eat its way from the first page of Volume One to the last page of Volume Three.
Now the pages of each of these volumes amount to three inches. So each volume has three inches of pages. And each cover is a quarter of an inch thick.
He's gonna eat his way from the first page of Volume One to the last page of Volume Three. And we want to know, the covers are a quarter of an inch thick. Each volume has three inches worth of pages. How many inches of material does this bookworm digest?
Now any fourth grader can figure this out. So if you have one, ask them!
The answer is four inches. Now that might come as a surprise to many.
Because if you think about it, if the books are stacked on the shelf, then page one of volume one is very close to the last page of volume three.
Better yet, go to the bookcase and take a look at three books that are side by side and you'll see what I saw!
All he's really eating through is just Volume Two. He's eating the front cover of Volume One, the back cover of Volume Two, all the way through the three inches of pages of Volume Two. Then through the front cover of Volume Two. And then through the back cover of volume three, where he hits the last page of Volume Three, and stops.
So he's eaten cover, cover, pages, cover, cover.
