Question

A slippery sloth climbs six feet up a utility pole during the day, then slides back down five feet during the night. If the pole is 30 feet high and the sloth starts from the ground (zero feet). how many days does it take the sloth to reach the top of the pole?

Answer 1

It takes the sloth 26 days to reach the top of the 30-foot utility pole, accounting for the net gain of 1 foot each day and no slide back on the last day.

Step-by-step explanation:

To calculate how many days it takes for the sloth to reach the top of a 30-foot pole, we'll consider the sloth's daily progress. Each day, the sloth climbs 6 feet, but slides back 5 feet at night, leading to a net gain of 1 foot per day.

However, on the last day of climbing, the sloth will reach the top before sliding back, so we do not need to subtract the 5 feet for the last ascent. If the pole is 30 feet high, the sloth will have reached 25 feet after 25 days (since 25 x 1 foot per day = 25 feet).

On the 26th day, the sloth will climb the remaining 5 feet without sliding back, reaching the top of the pole.

It will take the sloth 26 days to reach the top of the utility pole.