# Blog

## Power pole problems

By

,

Difficulty: Fun
Sergio is an electrician repairing a power line. There’s a stretch of eight, evenly spaced power poles he’s working on. The distance from the first to the fourth is 120 metres. What’s the distance from the first to the eighth pole?

Scroll down or click for a hint, or the answer!

## Brainteaser hint

Try drawing a picture to help!

Since the poles are evenly spaced, the gaps between them are the same.
Between the first and fourth poles, there are three gaps (1–2, 2–3, 3–4). It’s 120 metres for three gaps, so each gap is 40 metres (120 / 3 = 40).
There are seven gaps between the first and eighth poles. That means the distance between them must be 7 x 40 = 280 metres!

For more brainteasers and puzzles for kids, subscribe to Double Helix magazine!

Categories:

## Similar posts

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

By posting a comment you are agreeing to the Double Helix commenting guidelines.
The text passage contains a mathematical word problem about calculating the distance between power poles, and it provides a step-by-step solution to the problem.
single_question_with_answer
Given a text passage, determine:
    1. If it contains a mathematical question (including word problems or calculations)
    2. If an answer to that mathematical question is provided in the text

First, describe the content structure you found in 1-2 sentences.

Then provide your analysis in the following format:
TYPE: <one of the following values>
- NO_QUESTION
- SINGLE_QUESTION
- SINGLE_QUESTION_WITH_ANSWER
- MULTIPLE_QUESTIONS
- MULTIPLE_QUESTIONS_WITH_ANSWERS
system
# Blog

## Power pole problems

By

,

Difficulty: Fun
Sergio is an electrician repairing a power line. There’s a stretch of eight, evenly spaced power poles he’s working on. The distance from the first to the fourth is 120 metres. What’s the distance from the first to the eighth pole?

Scroll down or click for a hint, or the answer!

## Brainteaser hint

Try drawing a picture to help!

Since the poles are evenly spaced, the gaps between them are the same.
Between the first and fourth poles, there are three gaps (1–2, 2–3, 3–4). It’s 120 metres for three gaps, so each gap is 40 metres (120 / 3 = 40).
There are seven gaps between the first and eighth poles. That means the distance between them must be 7 x 40 = 280 metres!

For more brainteasers and puzzles for kids, subscribe to Double Helix magazine!

Categories:

## Similar posts

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

By posting a comment you are agreeing to the Double Helix commenting guidelines.
user
The text passage contains a mathematical word problem about calculating the distance between power poles, and it provides a step-by-step solution to the problem.

TYPE: SINGLE_QUESTION_WITH_ANSWER