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    A snail creeps 5 ft up a wall during the daytime. After all the labor it does throughout the day, it stops to rest a while... but falls asleep!! The next morning it wakes up and discovers that it has slipped down 3 ft while sleeping.
  If this happens every day, how many days will the snail take to reach the top of a wall 33 ft in height?
 Answer:  15
   Solution:
 
 On the first day, the snail climbs up 5 ft and slips down 3 ft while sleeping. So, next morning, it is 2 ft from where it started. The snail thus travels 2 ft upwards every day. Therefore, in 14 days, it has traveled a distance of 28 ft from the bottom.
 
 Here lies the catch to the problem! On the last day, the snail travels 5 ft upwards and hence reaches the top of the wall in a total of 15 days.
 
 Alternative Solution through Equation:
 
 Let x be the number of days the snail takes to reach the top of the wall 33 ft in height.
 
 On the last day, the snail will reach the top by traveling 5 ft upwards and there will not be any question of slipping down.      
   The number of remaining days excluding the last day are (x − 1). Since the snail climbs up 5 ft and slips down 3 ft while sleeping, it travels 2 ft upwards on each of these remaining days. Thus,
 
 Distance traveled on last day + Distance traveled on remaining days = Wall height; or      
   5 + 2 (x − 1) = 33
 
 On solving the above equation, we get
 
 2 (x − 1) = 33 − 5 = 28; or
   x = (28 / 2) + 1 = 15.  
    
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