Posted by Denis Borris on October 31, 2002 at 15:25:34:
In Reply to: Length of Sleep posted by RD on October 31, 2002 at 14:28:06:
: A person retires on Saturday night at twelve. After tossing for awhile he fell asleep. He awoke while it was still dark. He examined his watch and found that he had been asleep for twice as long as he had lain awake. After tossing for about the same time as before he fell asleep. The second sleep lasted twice as long as before. He awoke again and an hour elapsed before he dozed off again. This time he slept three times as long as on the first occasion and awoke at 8 a.m. How much sleep had he had?
: Please show step by step. Thank you for your assistance.
Jeeeeeeeeeeeezus Murphy....can't ya be clearer?
x=time ; y=time awake ABOUT equal to x !! (in awake:asleep order):
[12] x : 2x [?] y : 4x [?] 1 : 6x [8]
So 13x + y + 1 = 8
13x + y = 7 = 420 minutes
x = (420 - y) / 13
BUT that has 32 solutions!
So assuming ABOUT equal to x IS equal to x:
14x = 7
x = 1/2 hour