Tushar starts at 50 on the number line. He jumps 2 steps to his right, 3 steps to his left, 2 steps to his right, 3 steps to his left and so on. In how many jumps will he reach 30?

Aditya Godavarti (last edited 10 months ago) (Student, 11^th Grade)

You can think of the times when he jumps 2 steps to the right and when he jumps 3 steps to the right as two different jumps, so it is like every time Tushar takes 2 jumps, he ends up 1 step to the left of his original position. Since Tushar starts at 50 on the number line, and has to get to 30, this means that he should take 40 jumps, since every 2 jumps takes him 1 step to the left, and 50 minus 30 is equal to 20.