Real-Life Math
You are working the lines in the thick of a brutal winter storm,
one that has knocked out half the city's power. While everybody in the
call center is working overtime, the blizzard has made things almost unbearable!
Just
then, as if to make things worse, you get a call from a little girl. She says
her name is Meagan and she is eight years old. In her slow, deliberate way,
she proceeds to tell you that "there's a man in the house."
Feeling
a mixture of annoyance and curiosity, you ask her, "Is it your daddy?" She
says no. "Is it anybody in your family?" She says no again. "Is it a friend
of the family -- someone you know?" Again, no. At this point, you get more
than a little nervous.
Her response to the question, "Where do you
live, sweetheart?" is "I don't know. I don't know the number. But
we live on Jackson." She means Jackson Street. But you don't know the
number! After a minute of thinking some more, she manages to tell you: "I
know where we live -- at the 10th house after the store." This would place
the house on the north side of the street.
Before putting this emergency
into the police's hands, you really should give them a house number.
Given the fact that the north side of Jackson Street has all odd-numbered
houses, beginning at 1 and going up by 2 (so, the first two houses
on that side are 1 and 3), what house number is little Meagan at?