Question 772746: Six students each try to guess the number of pennies in a jar. The six guesses are 52, 59, 62, 65, 49, and 42. One guess is 12 away, and the other guesses are 1, 4, 6, 9, and 11 away. How many pennies are in the jar? --- So far I know there are 53 pennies in the jar, but I'm not exactly sure how to explain how I figured that out.
Answer by htmentor(1343) (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website! The worst guess is 12 away. The number of pennies has to be between the lowest guess, 42, and the highest guess, 65. If it were higher than 65 or lower than 42, then the 2nd worst guess could not be 11 away. That means the number is either 42+12 = 54 or 65-12 = 53. It cannot be 54, since there are no guesses that are 2 away and 54 and 52 are two apart. So the answer is 53.
Check:
65 - 53 = 12
53 - 42 = 11
62 - 53 = 9
59 - 53 = 6
53 - 49 = 4
53 - 52 = 1
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