SOLUTION: A fireman stood on the middle step of a ladder, shooting water into a burning building. As the smokelessened, he climbed up three steps and continued his work. The fire got worse,

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Question 171408: A fireman stood on the middle step of a ladder, shooting water into a burning building. As the smokelessened, he climbed up three steps and continued his work. The fire got worse, so he had to go down five steps. Later he climbed up the last six steps and was at th top of the ladder. How many steps were there?
Answer by Mathtut(3670) About Me  (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website!
well the answer is 9
: remember the middle rung can only be counted once so we need to account for that
:
if x is the total distance from one rung to the other
:
(1/2)x=3-5+6+1/2........the 1/2 is so that the middle rung is counted once
:
x/2=4.5
:
x=9%29steps