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An engineer designed a ball so that when it was dropped, it rose with 24 Aug 2016, 05:21
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An engineer designed a ball so that when it was dropped, it rose with each bounce exactly one-half as high as it had fallen. The engineer dropped the ball from a 16-meter platform and caught it after it had traveled 46.5 meters. How many times did the ball bounce?

A. 5
B. 6
C. 7
D. 8
E. 9
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An engineer designed a ball so that when it was dropped, it rose with 01 Jul 2017, 16:40
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Answer is 5 bounces
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An engineer designed a ball so that when it was dropped, it rose with 24 Aug 2016, 05:49
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Bunuel
An engineer designed a ball so that when it was dropped, it rose with each bounce exactly one-half as high as it had fallen. The engineer dropped the ball from a 16-meter platform and caught it after it had traveled 46.5 meters. How many times did the ball bounce?

A. 5
B. 6
C. 7
D. 8
E. 9
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Bounce count Distance traveled Total distance traveled
_____1_______16__________________16
_____2_______8 (rise) + 8 (fall________32
_____3_______4(rise) + 4(fall)________40
_____4_______2(rise) + 2(fall)________44
_____5_______1 + 1_______________46
_____6_______0.5 + 0.5____________47

Hence 6 bounces. Answer is B





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An engineer designed a ball so that when it was dropped, it rose with 24 Aug 2016, 06:13
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Going down = 16 m

Going Up = 8 --> Total = 24

Going down = 8 --> Total = 32

Going Up = 4 --> Total = 36

Going down = 4 --> Total = 40

Going up = 2 --> Total = 42

Going down = 2 --> Total = 44

Going up = 1 --> Total = 45

Going down = 1 --> Total = 46

Going up = 0.5 --> Total = 46.5 (Caught)

No of going downs = 5 .. Option A
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An engineer designed a ball so that when it was dropped, it rose with 24 Aug 2016, 23:32
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the solution can be written as 16,8,8,4,4,2,2,1,1,.5 with every odd number being a bounce.hence 5

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An engineer designed a ball so that when it was dropped, it rose with 09 Mar 2017, 09:39
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Wow... I can't believe I didn't think of calculating the balls travel distance as it bounced up.
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An engineer designed a ball so that when it was dropped, it rose with 15 Mar 2017, 16:42
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Bunuel
An engineer designed a ball so that when it was dropped, it rose with each bounce exactly one-half as high as it had fallen. The engineer dropped the ball from a 16-meter platform and caught it after it had traveled 46.5 meters. How many times did the ball bounce?

A. 5
B. 6
C. 7
D. 8
E. 9
Show more

An efficient way to solve to this problem is to keep track of the distance the ball traveled in each bounce and the cumulative total distance it traveled.

1st bounce: 16 meters down and 8 meters up → traveled 24 meters

2nd bounce: 8 meters down and 4 meters up → traveled 12 meters + 24 meters earlier = 36 meters

3rd bounce: 4 meters down and 2 meters up → traveled 6 meters + 36 meters earlier = 42 meters

4th bounce: 2 meters down and 1 meter up → traveled 3 meters + 42 meters earlier = 45 meters

5th bounce: 1 meter up and 0.5 meter down → traveled 1.5 meters + 45 meters earlier = 46.5 meters

Answer: A
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An engineer designed a ball so that when it was dropped, it rose with 17 Jan 2024, 15:32
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Something else to keep in mind here to save mental fatigue: I didn't bother calculating the total distance traveled until I got to 5 drops, at which point I noticed the 0.5 and realized it could be 5 since we're working with decimals now. Lo and behold, it was 5.
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An engineer designed a ball so that when it was dropped, it rose with 06 Oct 2025, 10:08
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