Jump to content
BrainDen.com - Brain Teasers

Subtraction


rookie1ja
 Share

Recommended Posts

If you only want to work w/ positive #s, 2 can be substracted frrom 32 16 times till you get to 0:

30, 28, 26, 24, 22, 20, 18, 16, 14, 12, 10, 8, 6, 4, 2, 0

Otherwise you can subtract 2 from 32 an unlimited # of times. Just go into negatives:

10, 8, 6, 4, 2, 0, -2, -4, -6, -8, -10

No, u dont understand because if 32-2=30 then u want to get 0 because u cant because u then have to subtract from 30, do u get it?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 months later...

Lol in response to:

"How many cookies can you eat on an empty stomach?"

After you eat one cookie, it's still going down your throat so its not in your stomach yet ^___^ so you can eat another cookie. Strange logic, but whatever.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I... don't get it haha :P Im only 12 *looks sheepish* :rolleyes: But I AM not you're average 6th grader, no I'm not. My IQ is 130, which is good for my age. ;)

Edited by Jordan F.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...

infinity you can just keep doing it as is the right answer

and IQ is irrelivant of age, its always going to be the same. tbh lower than 130 would be my guess.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

That reminds me of these riddles:

How many cookies can you eat with an empty stomach? 1!

How many books can fit in an empty schoolbag? 1!

i believe you can take it away infite times when you actually think about it

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...
come on. everyone knowes that 2 can be subtracted from 32 16 times unless you go into the negitives. and for idiots, 32-2=30, as many times as you want DUH

People should read the forum before they post ignorant remarks...

You can subtract 2 from 32 only once.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Subtraction - solution

Once. After you subtract 2 from 32, you subtract 2 from 30, from 28, and so on.

This answer is wrong, and I'll prove it:

32-2 = 30

32-2 = 30

There, I proved that you can subtract 2 from 32 at least twice, even using the logic of the original solution.

Wait, I can do it a third time.

32-2 = 30

and a fourth...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This answer is wrong, and I'll prove it:

32-2 = 30

32-2 = 30

There, I proved that you can subtract 2 from 32 at least twice, even using the logic of the original solution.

Wait, I can do it a third time.

32-2 = 30

and a fourth...

The question is, "how many times can you subtract 2 from 32?" Not, how many time can you subtract 2 from 32, and 32?"

There are 2 ways I think of the number 32 in this riddle. One is thinking of the number as 2 blocks. One block with the number 3 and another with the number 2. Only one block exists with the number 2, so it only can be subtracted once.

Another is obviously mathmatical. Subtract 2 from 32 you get 30. The number 32 no longer exists and is replaced with the number 30.There is no part of the riddle that includes additional number 32's.

... i think i just sucked the fun out of this riddle.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...
Subtraction - Back to the River Crossing Puzzles

How many times can you subtract the number 2 from the number 32?

Subtraction - solution

Once. After you subtract 2 from 32, you subtract 2 from 30, from 28, and so on.

I disagree. You can subtract it as many times as you want. Watch:

32-2=30

32-2=30

32-2=30

32-2=30

32-2=30

32-2=30

That time, I felt like doing it 5 times. :P

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

WARNING: the following answer is one of those "nitpicky" type answers, but I'm really just trying to inject some humor.

Several people have suggested that the answer is infinite because you can subtract 2 from 32 once (32-2 = 30), and then you can do it again (32-2=30), and then you can do it again...as many times as you want.

There's a flaw in this though - the question asks how many times YOU can subtract 2 from 32. It takes a discreet amount of time to do that calculation, although it is pretty quick. Given that the action takes a discreet amount of time, and YOU will only live for discreet amount of time, there is a limit to the number of times that YOU can subtract 2 from 32.

Assuming that a person devotes the rest of their life to doing just this:

It takes me about 2.5 seconds to say "thirty two minus two equals thirty" at a normal pace, but if you are a speed talker, or if you're doing it in your head, you can certainly do it faster. Even it's 1 second per transaction, it's unlikely that you'll live to be more than 150 years old, and anyone reading this riddle has to be at least 3 years old to actually be able to read it, so:

(150-3)years x 365.25days x 24hours x 60minutes x 60 seconds = 4,638,967,200 times.

So my answer to the question: roughly 4.5 billion times.

:)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest
This topic is now closed to further replies.
 Share

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...