An ice cream truck was parked near a beach, and some kids ran to it and formed a line. Then, more kids joined the line by fillin
g in each empty space between the kids in the original line. This happened two more times before the ice cream truck driver finally came back from his lunch break, and there were 49 kids in line. How many kids were in the first line?
So, we know that this process happened 3 times in total. The original amount of kids we can call x, so the next wave filled in the gaps inbetween, so we call that amount x-1, the next wave would be (x+x-1)-1 or 2x-2, and the last would be 4x-4
adding this all up we get 8x-7=49, so 8x = 56 or x = 7
