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Buford lives way out in the woods and has only a 20 oz bottle of Gatorade and a natural spring of water to drink.


To conserve his Gatorade he decides that on the first day he will drink one oz from the bottle and the refill the bottle back up with water. On the 2nd day he will drink 2oz and refill the bottle. On the 3rd day he will drink 3oz and so on...

By the time all the Gatorade is gone, how much water has Buford drunk?

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Answer

Buford has drunk 190oz of water.

It is given that Buford has 20oz bottle of Gatorade. Also, he will drink 1oz on the first day and refill the bottle with water, will drink 2oz on the second day and refill the bottle, will drink 3oz on the third day and refill the bottle, and so on till 20th day. Thus at the end of 20 days, he must have drunk (1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + ..... +18 + 19 + 20) = 210oz of liquid.

Out of that 210oz, 20oz is the Gatorade which he had initially. Hence, he must have drunk 190oz of water.


(And taken one heck of a whiz!)