Question

A 26-volume encyclopedia(1 volume for each letter) is placed on a bookshelf in alphabetical order from left to right. Each volume is 2 inches thick, including front and back covers. Each cover is 1/4 inch thick. A bookworm eats straight through the encyclopedia , beginning inside the front cover of volume A and ending after eating through the back cover of Volume Z. How many inches of book did the bookworm eat?

Answer 1

Eating from the inside cover of the first book to the back cover of the last boook, will take the bookworm 25 full books (that is from B to Z) and for book A, the total distance should be subtracted by 1/4 (that is the length of the inside cover)
                          total distance covered = (2)(25) + (2 - 1/4)
The answer to the equation above is,
                           total distance covered = 51.75 inches