Final answer:
The statement is not reasonable as there would be approximately 52 water stops in a 26.2 mile marathon with water stops every 0.5 miles, not 40.
Step-by-step explanation:
To determine if it's reasonable to say that there are about 40 water stops in a 26.2-mile marathon with water stops every 0.5 miles, we simply need to divide the total distance by the distance between water stops. The calculation would be 26.2 miles ÷ 0.5 miles = 52.4. This result represents the total number of 0.5-mile segments in a full marathon, and hence the total number of potential water stops. However, if we consider the start and finish line areas as not requiring separate water stops, we subtract one stop from our total, resulting in 52. Therefore, the statement is not reasonable because there would actually be approximately 52 water stops, not 40.