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A Publication Featuring The Information
Services Technology of Maine State Government
| Volume VI, Issue 10 | October 2003 |
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A teacher has a total of 16 new pieces of chalk. When a chalk piece reduces to 1/4 of its original size, it gets too small for her to hold for writing and hence she sets it aside. But she hates wasting things and so, when she realizes that she has enough of these small pieces, she joins them with chalk glue and uses the new piece. If she uses one chalk piece each day, how many days would the 16 chalk pieces last?
For an extra challenge, but no pizza, what if she started with 30 pieces of chalk? How much unusable chalk would she have left?
Please e-mail Lester Dickey with your answer and your name, phone number, and the organization for which you work. Or call Barbara Buck at 624-9501. The winner will be drawn from all the correct entries and will receive a FREE donated pizza, either from CJ’s Pizza or from the EDOC Cafeteria. All answers must be in no later than the 14th of the month.
Last month's challenge brought 28 submissions, with 26 being correct answers. The winner, chosen by random drawing, is Lars Rydell of the DAFS Commissioner’s Office.
The answers to last month’s Challenge: The incorrect figure is the 9,300 square miles. This would be an area approximately 96 miles on a side, less than the state of New York. The correct area should be larger by at least a factor of 10, but probably closer to a factor of 50.
