<PRE><B>Question 1148376</B>
&lt;br&gt;
The wording of the problem suggests that the 26 volumes are all next to one another on a shelf; of course there would be no way to answer the question if that were not the case.&lt;br&gt;
And the statement of the problem didn&#39;t specify that the volumes were in order, so technically the question can&#39;t be answered.&lt;br&gt;
So let&#39;s assume the volumes are in order on the shelf, left to right.&lt;br&gt;
With 26 volumes, each 5cm thick, and with front and back covers each 1.5cm thick, the width of each volume is 8cm.  So the total length of the 26 volumes on the shelf is 26*8 = 208cm.&lt;br&gt;
Certainly the hole he made didn&#39;t go through the left cover of volume A or the right cover of volume Z.
But the hole also didn&#39;t go through the pages of volume A, because page 1 of volume A is at the right end of that volume; and likewise it didn&#39;t go through the pages of volume Z, because the last page of volume Z is at the left end of that volume.&lt;br&gt;
So, of the part of the 208cm total length of the volumes on the shelf, what the hole did NOT go through is the thickness of 2 covers and 2 sets of pages, a total of 2(1.5cm)+2(5cm) = 13cm.&lt;br&gt;
ANSWER: The distance he traveled was 208-13 = 195cm.&lt;br&gt;
</PRE>