Cheap Charlie likes to smoke cigars.
He cannot afford cigars so he puts five stubs (which he finds) together to make one full cigar.

One day Charlie was lucky to get 25 stubs.

How many cigars could he smoke?

For a bonus point; how many cigars could he have smoked if he had only found 20 stubs?

First, contrary to the above report, I do not smoke; it's a disgusting and vile habit.

However, back to the problem at hand:  The first question has already been answered.

The second question has more interpretive possibilities.  Apparently a cigar is 4/5 usable, with a 1/5 unusable stub.  So, being left with 4 stubs, after having smoked 4 cigars, Cheap can make a cigar of 3/5 usable tobacco and 1/5 unusable stub.  As this cigar is only 3/5 usable instead of the usual 4/5, it could in some sense be counted as 3/4 of a cigar, as we are counting the use of 4/5 of a cigar as having smoked the cigar: so he smokes 4 and 3/4 cigars, in that sense.

Posted by Charlie on 2004-03-12 10:15:04