riddle my physics teacher told us

[Raikomaru]

i need help, seriously:

theres a set of 10 books, 1000 pages each, a bookworm chews from the 1st page of the 1st book to the 1000th page of the 10th book, how many pages does he chew through? (covers not included) (its not 0, 1, 2, 9999, or 10000)

[Anduril]

Question: when you say pages, are front and back counted as separate pages? And are we assuming that each volume is against the next one in sequential order?

[Ceresa]

If the books are all lined up properly, like on a shelf, then the first page of book 1 where you start will be on the right side and you jump immediately to the last page of book 2 etc all the way to book 10. So you take out the last 999 pages of book 1 because they are before your start point, and you take out the first 999 pages of book 10 because they are after the end point.

After that it's just counting pages, like Anduril asked, is one page counting front and back or not. But since they already specified just pages, and not say the # of sheets of paper, it's probably ok to just got with 8000 + first and last, depending on whether you're supposed to assume he chewed those too.

[Raikomaru]

jeez, i have no idea if thats right, but each page only counts as 1 page

[Nitro Vordex]

I'm inclined to say it's a trick question, or an obvious trip up in the question.

For some reason, I want to believe somewhere between 1000-2000 pages, because it doesn't say in the question he chewed through all of the books.

Did he actually chew through ALL of the books?

[Tetsaru]

If the books are all lined up properly, like on a shelf, then the first page of book 1 where you start will be on the right side and you jump immediately to the last page of book 2 etc all the way to book 10. So you take out the last 999 pages of book 1 because they are before your start point, and you take out the first 999 pages of book 10 because they are after the end point.

After that it's just counting pages, like Anduril asked, is one page counting front and back or not. But since they already specified just pages, and not say the # of sheets of paper, it's probably ok to just got with 8000 + first and last, depending on whether you're supposed to assume he chewed those too.

I'd have to agree with this answer. It all depends on how the books are arranged, and what kind of path the worm uses to eat through them.

[W0LB0T]

I'm pretty sure the answer is 42

[beatrixkiddo]

http://www.scientificblogging.com/chatter_box/blog/bookworm_and_encyclopedias_solution

Google works wonders

[Outrider]

The question is: DOES HE HAVE ANY POWER-UPS?

http://www.cnkjz.net/screen/en_bookworm-adventures/screen1.jpg

[McLaughlin]

I felt pretty clever for knowing the answer but then Bea ruined all the fun and used Google.

[Waki Miko Syamemaru!]

The question is: DOES HE HAVE ANY POWER-UPS?

http://www.cnkjz.net/screen/en_bookworm-adventures/screen1.jpg

Then thats a completely different answer alltogether. I mean does the worm have "Turbo Boost" on or does he have his "Option" out in front of him?