Latest revision as of 17:13, 3 February 2025

Problem

Sarika, Dev, and Rajiv are sharing a large block of cheese. They take turns cutting off half of what remains and eating it: first Sarika eats half of the cheese, then Dev eats half of the remaining half, then Rajiv eats half of what remains, then back to Sarika, and so on. They stop when the cheese is too small to see. About what fraction of the original block of cheese does Sarika eat in total?

$\textbf{(A)}\ \frac{4}{7} \qquad \textbf{(B)}\ \frac{3}{5} \qquad \textbf{(C)}\ \frac{2}{3} \qquad \textbf{(D)}\ \frac{3}{4} \qquad \textbf{(E)}\ \frac{7}{8}$

Video Solution by Pi Academy

https://youtu.be/Iv_a3Rz725w?si=E0SI_h1XT8msWgkK

Video Solution

Key Idea: Let $x$ be the fraction eaten by Sarika. Then Dev eats $\frac{x}{2}$ and Rajiv eats $\frac{x}{4}$ . Hence $x + \frac{x}{2} + \frac{x}{4} = 1$ so solving for $x$ we get $x = \frac{4}{7}$ , $\boxed{\textbf{(A)}}$ .

Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUR5VYabbrc

Solution 1

WLOG, let the amount of total cheese be $1$ . Then Sarika eats $\dfrac{1}{2}$ , Dev eats $\dfrac{1}{4}$ , Rajiv eats $\dfrac{1}{8}$ , Sarika eats $\dfrac{1}{16}$ and so on. After a couple for attempts, we see that Sarika eats cheese in an infinite geometric sequence with first term $\dfrac{1}{2}$ and common ratio of $\dfrac{1}{8}$ . Therefore, we use the infinite geometric sequence formula and get $\dfrac{\dfrac{1}{2}}{1-\dfrac{1}{8}}=\dfrac{\dfrac{1}{2}}{\dfrac{7}{8}}=\dfrac{4}{7}$ To find how much Sarika eats, we just divide this by our original total and get $\dfrac{\dfrac{4}{7}}{1}=1$ .

Therefore, Sarika eats $\frac{4}{7}$ $\boxed{\textbf{(A)}}$ of the cheese.

~athreyay

Solution 2 (Estimation)

Sarika eats 1/2 of the original cheese, and then because the others eat 1/4 and 1/8, she eats 1/16 next, and then 1/128, and then so on. Since the values later are going to be too small to make a huge difference, we can use these 3 values. She ate (64 + 8 + 1)/128 = 73/128. We can replace the 73 with a 72 for now, so 72/128 = 9/16, which simplifies to around 56.25. Since there is a little bit more of the cheese to be accounted for, the amount that she eats will be around (A): 4/7

~Sigmacuber

Solution 3 Speed

Her first 2 bites will be 1/2 and 1/16. Everything else won't matter, so the answer will be closest to 9/16, 4/7

~Moonwatcher22

Video Solution 1 by SpreadTheMathLove

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jTTcscvcQmI

Video Solution (A Clever Explanation You’ll Get Instantly)

https://youtu.be/VP7g-s8akMY?si=E-EnGyXALPVaXvPy&t=2698 ~hsnacademy

Video Solution by Thinking Feet

https://youtu.be/PKMpTS6b988

A Concise Video Solution in 56 Seconds by Dr. Xue's Math School

https://youtu.be/nmoYIQKzjVE

Work smarter, work more efficiently, not just harder.

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