Question

In the lunch room at your school, 5 people can sit at one table. If you put two tables together, 8 people can sit. If you put three tables together, 11 people can sit. How many people can sit if you put 20 tables together?

Answer 1

5 people at the table base, increased by 3 with each additional table. 19 x 3 = 57 + 5 (base table capacity) = 62 people.

Answer 2

Based on the pattern, with each added table, 3 more people can sit. Now, let's see, how many people can sit when we put 20 tables together.

1. First, count the number of 'extra' tables after the first one. With 20 tables in total, we subtract 1 for the initial table to obtain 19 extra tables.

2. We know that for each extra table, 3 more people can sit. So, we then multiply the 19 extra tables by 3, which results in 57.

3. Recall that with the first table, 5 people could sit.

4. To get the total number of people that can sit, we then add the calculated extra seats, which is 57, to the initial 5 seats. So, 57 + 5 equals 62.

So, when you put 20 tables together, 62 people can sit according to the pattern we have noticed.