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Re: general gre math problem

Subject: Re: general gre math problem
From: "john"
Date: 31 Dec 2006 01:10:45 -0800
Newsgroups: sci.math
David T. Ashley wrote:
> "Ted Hwa" <hwatheod@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
> news:en7pbn$8ac$1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> >
> > Suppose instead the lane were 30 feet long.  Then how many saplings are
> > needed?  That should help you see the reasoning.
>
> Additional hint:  This type of problem comes up SO often in integer
> arithmetic.
>
> One might say, if L is the length of the lane, that the number of saplings
> required is:
>
> floor(L/30) + 1
>
> And of the two terms above ... guess which one you're not seeing?
>
> Additional hint #2:  If all else fails, get a roll of quarters and 9 decks
> of playing cards.  Each card can be one foot of length, and each quarter can
> be a sapling.  For approximately $35 or less, you can figure out what you're
> not seeing ...  And of the $35, you can get $10 back (the roll of quarters
> can still be used as money).

Thanks everyone.

Yeah I've sen this type of problem so often. I didn't even know there
was a name for it. As usually i'm off by 1. I guess there is many
different ways to word the problem to either indlude or exclude the
initial sapling...

IF they ask for all the numbers that can be included then I guess I
woudl use the floor... What type of scenarios will you exclude that 1
in Floor(L/30)+1 ?

It seems like there should be a particular way of wording that..

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