Monday, August 31, 2009

Math, Science, and Technology Monday

I recently received a card from a fellow co-worker/dear friend/wise mentor who reminded me that as a proud math/science geek I needed to help encourage others into the math/science geekdom. So with that charge in mind, I write my first math, science, and technology blog. Today it's a problem; next week it might be an interesting invention that catches my attention. If nothing else it will be a good way for me to keep up with my own professional community.

Although you could use some fancy mathematics to solve the following problem, it is not neccessary. Knowledge of operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division) and some time thinking is enough to solve it. Happy solving.

A man entered an apple orchard that had 7 guards and picked some apples. When he left, he gave the first guard half his apples and 1 apple more. To the second guard, he gave half his remaining apples and 1 more. He did the same to each of the remaining five guards and left the orchard with 1 apple. How many apples did he gather in all?

I'll leave the answer in the comments section.