What Happens When I Eat More Doughnuts Than Planned?

  • Context: High School 
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Discussion Overview

The discussion revolves around a hypothetical scenario involving the consumption of doughnuts, specifically addressing how many extra doughnuts would need to be eaten to finish a box of 28 doughnuts by a certain day. The conversation explores different interpretations of time and counting days in relation to the consumption schedule.

Discussion Character

  • Debate/contested
  • Mathematical reasoning

Main Points Raised

  • Post 1 presents a scenario where the participant questions how many extra doughnuts must be consumed to finish the box by Wednesday instead of Thursday.
  • ANSWER A claims that four extra doughnuts are needed to finish by Wednesday.
  • ANSWER B argues that six extra doughnuts are required, based on a counting method that considers days between meals.
  • Post 2 and Post 3 challenge the logic of counting days as presented in ANSWER B, suggesting it leads to absurd conclusions.
  • Post 4 confirms that ANSWER B is considered absurd by some participants.
  • Post 5 seeks validation for ANSWER A, which is affirmed in Post 7 as being correct.
  • Post 8 disputes the day counting method used in ANSWER B, asserting that the time from Wednesday to Friday is actually two days, not three.
  • Post 9 states that while ANSWER A is correct, it is irrelevant due to concerns about the freshness of the doughnuts.
  • Post 10 raises a concern about the health implications of eating doughnuts every day for lunch.
  • Post 11 clarifies that the doughnut scenario was hypothetical for the sake of the question.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants express disagreement regarding the validity of ANSWER B, with some affirming ANSWER A as correct. However, there is no consensus on the implications of the answers or the practicality of the scenario.

Contextual Notes

The discussion includes assumptions about counting days and the timing of meals, which are not universally accepted among participants. The relevance of the freshness of the doughnuts is also raised but not resolved.

julian
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I buy a box of 28 doughnuts with the intention of eating two doughnuts each lunch time. If I stick to two doughnuts per day I end up eating the last two doughnuts on say a Thursday. (I then need to start the next box of 28 doughnuts the day after that on the Friday at lunch time.)

I have a question about the first box of 28 doughnuts...

QUESTION: If on some of the lunch times I eat 3 doughnuts instead of 2 (so I eat an extra doughnut), how many extra doughnuts would I have eaten in order to have none left to eat on the Wednesday?

Here are two different answers:

ANSWER A: If I don't have the two doughnuts I was going to eat on the Thursday and if I don't
have the two I was going to eat on the Wednesday, I must have eaten FOUR extra
doughnuts.

ANSWER B: I would have to start the second box of doughnuts on the Wednesday instead of
starting it on the Friday. Wednesday lunch time is 3 days earlier than Friday lunch time because we can count Wednesday 1, Thursday 2, Friday 3. Therefore I must have eaten 3 day's worth extra or in other words SIX extra doughnuts.

Which answer is correct?
 
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If Wednesday is 3 days earlier than Friday, then Thursday is 2 days earlier than Friday, then Friday is a day earlier than Friday, and, I guess, Saturday is then the same day as Friday?
 
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PeroK said:
If Wednesday is 3 days earlier than Friday, then Thursday is 2 days earlier than Friday, then Friday is a day earlier than Friday, and, I guess, Saturday is then the same day as Friday?

Are you saying ANSWER B is absurd?
 
julian said:
Are you saying ANSWER B is absurd?

Yes, it's absurd!
 
Hi PeroK. Is ANSWER A O.K.?
 
By your definition of counting days, Each day is 1 day earlier than the day itself. So we have a problem with B.
E: oh nvm, PeroK already mentioned this, I was just reading the first post.
 
julian said:
Hi PeroK. Is ANSWER A O.K.?

Yes, it's got to be 4.
 
Another way of saying the same thing:

julian said:
Wednesday lunch time is 3 days earlier than Friday lunch time because we can count Wednesday 1, Thursday 2, Friday 3.
No you can't. Wednesday beginning-of-lunch (say, 12PM) to Friday beginning-of-lunch (12PM) is 2 days, not 3.

What you're trying to do is count Wednesday 12PM to Friday 1PM.
 
A is correct, but it's also irrelevant. Those doughnuts will be stale by the first Monday.
 
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  • #10
Since you got an answer let's talk about eating doughnuts every day for lunch... please tell me no one actually does that. You may as well be eating candy.
 
  • #11
I just came up with doughnuts for the purposes of the question.
 

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