2022 AMC 8 Problems/Problem 11

Revision as of 13:11, 27 December 2024 by Brainiacs77 (talk | contribs) (Solution 1)

Problem

Henry the donkey has a very long piece of pasta. He takes a number of bites of pasta, each time eating $3$ inches of pasta from the middle of one piece. In the end, he has $10$ pieces of pasta whose total length is $17$ inches. How long, in inches, was the piece of pasta he started with?

$\textbf{(A) } 34\qquad\textbf{(B) } 38\qquad\textbf{(C) } 41\qquad\textbf{(D) } 44\qquad\textbf{(E) } 47$



Solution 1

Let's say that the first strand of pasta he had is x. The first time he takes a bite of this strand will make it 2 pieces. This is x - 3. The second time he takes the bites of EACH strand will become (x - 3) * 3(2). The 2 is for the two bites he took, 1 for each strand. This equation is showing that for every bite that he is taking, he is taking off 3 inches. This is being showed in the 3(2). He took 2 bites, each taking off 3 inches. Now, the problem is stating that their are 10 pieces of pasta and the TOTAL length is 17 inches. We have to plug in the total number of bites to the equation (x - 3) * 3( ). To find this out, we can see that for the number of strands there are, he took 1 less bite than that number. For example, if there are 2 pieces, he took 1 bite to get those. Since there are 10 pieces, he took 9 bites. The equation then becomes, (x - 3) * 3(9) = 17. To solve this, x = 44. Therefore, the answer is $\boxed{\textbf{(D) } 44}$.

Solution 2

If there are $10$ pieces of pasta, Henry took $10-1=9$ bites. Each of these $9$ bites took $3$ inches of pasta out, and thus his bites in total took away $9\cdot 3 = 27$ inches of pasta. Thus, the original piece of pasta was $27+17=\boxed{\textbf{(D) } 44}$ inches long.

~wamofan

Video Solution by Math-X (First understand the problem!!!)

https://youtu.be/oUEa7AjMF2A?si=1Ku2y-sqPm_i3J01&t=1518

~Math-X

Video Solution (CREATIVE THINKING!!!)

https://youtu.be/q7bicopSq14

~Education, the Study of Everything

Video Solution by SpreadTheMathLove

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UmuvflX99ig

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H1K4WJ93isA

~Mathematical Dexterity

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https://youtu.be/Ij9pAy6tQSg?t=887

~Interstigation

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https://youtu.be/p29Fe2dLGs8

~STEMbreezy

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https://youtu.be/S6kqa8VUj70

~savannahsolver

Video Solution by Dr. David

https://youtu.be/C4n4S-FbLl4

See Also

2022 AMC 8 (ProblemsAnswer KeyResources)
Preceded by
Problem 10
Followed by
Problem 12
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25
All AJHSME/AMC 8 Problems and Solutions

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