Answer to Question #391 in Algebra for Tiff

Question

A bug is crawling along a meter stick. At a certain point the bug stops. The bug needs to crawl 3 times as far as it has already crawled in order to be 4cm from the end. How far has the bug already crawled?

Answer 1

Let's consider that bug crawled x meters. Then the bug needs to crawl 3 times as far as it has already crawled (3x) in order to be 4 cm from the end. So bug has to crawl x + 3x + 0,04 (4 cm) to reach the end of the meter stick. So we can write an equation and find x.

x+3x+0.04 = 1
4x = 0.96
x = 0.24 (m)

Answer: x = 24 cm