Question: Andy had a platter of chocolate cookies. He ate 3 of them then gave his little brother 5 because he was behaving. He then handed the platter to his basketball team of eight members. The first player to arrive took 1, the second player to arrive took 3, the third player took 5, and so on. When the last player took his share, the platter was empty. How many chocolate cookies did Andy have from start with?
Answer with step-by-step thinking: Andy and his brother ate 5 + 3 = 8 cookies in total. The nth term of the sequence for the basketball players taking cookies in 2n - 1. The number of players is 8 so they would have eaten 1 + 3 + 5 + 7 + 9 + 11 + 13 + 15 = 64 cookies. In total Andy had 64 + 8 = 72 cookies to start with before they were all eaten.
So the answer is 72.


Question: James prints out 2 books. They are each 600 pages long. He prints out double-sided and 4 pages per side. How many sheets of paper does he use?
Answer with step-by-step thinking: He printed 600 * 2 = 1200 pages. Each sheet of paper was 4 * 2 = 8 pages. So he used 1200 / 8 = 150 sheets of paper.
So the answer is 150.


Question: On Monday, Mack writes in his journal for 60 minutes at a rate of 1 page every 30 minutes. On Tuesday, Mack writes in his journal for 45 minutes at a rate of 1 page every 15 minutes. On Wednesday, Mack writes 5 pages in his journal. How many pages total does Mack write in his journal from Monday to Wednesday?
Answer with step-by-step thinking:
On Monday, Mack writes 60 / 30 = 2 pages. On Tuesday, Mack writes 45 / 15 = 3 pages. In total, from Monday to Wednesday, Mack writes 2 + 3 + 5 = 10 pages.
So the answer is 10.