Question. Lisa is looking to attempt a World Record. She has decided to try and match Joey Chestnut's record of eating 75 full hotdogs, buns included, in 10 minutes. Halfway through the time Lisa has eaten 20 hotdogs. How many hotdogs will she have to eat per minute to at least tie Joey Chestnut's record?
Answer. 11
What step-by-step reasoning justifies that answer?
Reasoning: Joey Chestnut ate 75 hotdogs to claim the record and Lisa has eaten 20 hot dogs so far, so she still needs to eat 75 - 20 = 55 hotdogs to tie Joey Chestnut. Lisa has a 10 minute time period to eat the hotdogs and half the time has already passed, which means Lisa has 10 / 2 = 5 minutes left until the competition is over. If she needs to eat 55 hotdogs to tie Joey Chestnut and there are 5 minutes left in the competition period then she needs to eat 55 / 5 = 11 hot dogs per minute to have a chance of tying for a win.