A worm is at the bottom of a forty foot hole. It can crawl upwards at the rate of four feet in one day, but at night, it slips back three feet. At this rate, how long will it take the worm to crawl out of the hole?
REVEAL THE ANSWER
37 days. At the end of day one, the worm would be at the one foot mark. At the end of the 35th day the worm would be at the 35 foot mark. On the 36th day the worm travels from 35 feet to 39 feet but slips back to 36 feet at the end of the 36th day. On the 37th day, the worm travels up four feet from the 36th foot mark and is consequently out of the hole.