Question

A firefighter is standing on the middlemost rung of a ladder, extinguishing a fire. In order to get a better position, the firefighter climbs 6 rungs. But due to the flames, the firefighter climbs down 10 rungs. After the fire calms down the firefighter climbs 18 rungs to reach the top rung.

How many rungs did the ladder have?

Answer 1

29 rungs

Explanation:

In this question, we are to use the climbing statistics of a firefighter to determine the number of rungs a ladder have.

Firstly, since we do not know the number of rungs but we know we are starting from the middle rung, let the middle rung be r.

From the middle rung, he climbed 6 rungs, meaning he would be on rung x + 6 ! From here he came down ten rungs, meaning he would be on rung x + 6 - 10 = x -4

Now, he climbed 18 rungs again, making x -4+18 = x + 14

This is equal to the topmost rung i.e the topmost rung is at a position x + 14

This means that the ladder must have 14 rungs above the middle , 14 below it and the middle itself

14+ 14 + 1 = 29 rungs