Question

Mary went up the Old Tower taking 3 steps per second. Then she carefully came down from the tower taking 2 steps per second. It took Mary 25 seconds longer to come down than to go up. How many steps does the Old Tower have?

Answer 1

The old tower has 150 steps

Explanation:

Let the number of steps in the old tower be m

Mathematically, time = distance/speed

In this case, the distance is the number of steps while the speed is the rate of climbing or descending

For climbing, time spent = m/3

For descending time spent = m/2

Since it took her 25 longer when descending;

This means that;

m/2 - m/3 = 25

(3m-2m)/6 = 25

m/6 = 25

m = 6 * 25

m = 150 steps