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IN SOLVING THIS QUESTION IT IS CLEAR THAT TO PICK UP THE FIRST STONE AND PUT IT INTO THE BASKET, THE PERSON MUST WALK TWO YARDS, ONE IN GOING FOR THE STONE AND ANOTHER IN RETURNING WITH IT; THAT FOR THE SECOND STONE HE MUST WALK FOUR YARDS, AND SO ON INCREASING BY TWO AS FAR AS THE HUNDREDTH, WHEN HE MUST WALK TWO HUNDRED YARDS, SO THAT THE SUM TOTAL WILL BE THE PRODUCT OF 202 MULTIPLIED BY 50, OR 10,100 YARDS. IF ANY ONE DOES NOT SEE WHY WE MULTIPLY 202 BY 50 IN GETTING THE ANSWER, WE REFER HIM TO HIS ARITHMETIC THE MESSENGER HAS TO HAVE TRAVELED 2 KM. IT DOESN'T MATTER WHAT SPEED THEY WALKED AT. AT THE BEGINNING OF THE PUZZLE, THE LINE IS 1 KM LONG. THE GENERAL IS THEREFORE 1 KM AHEAD OF HIM. THE MESSENGER MUST THEREFORE TRAVEL MORE THAN 1 KM TO REACH THE GENERAL. SINCE THE LINE MOVES 1 KM FORWARD, THE END IS WHERE THE BEGINNING WAS. EVEN IF HE WALKED 1.5 KM TO THE GENERAL, HE ONLY HAS TO WALK 0.5 KM TO GET BACK TO THE END OF THE LINE. IT GOES FASTER GOING BACK, BECAUSE NOW THEY ARE COMING TOWARDS HIM, AND NOT GOING AWAY HE HAD 15 EGGS. THE FIRST PERSON BOUGHT HALF OF THE 15 EGGS WHICH IS 7½ EGGS AND ANOTHER ½ EGG. SO HE BOUGHT 8 EGGS IN TOTAL AND JACK IS LEFT WITH 7 EGGS. THE SECOND PERSON BOUGHT HALF OF THE REMAINING 7 EGGS WHICH IS 3½ EGGS AND ANOTHER ½ EGG. SO HE BOUGHT 4 EGGS AND JACK IS LEFT WITH 3 EGGS. THE LAST PERSON BOUGHT HALF OF THE REMAINING 3 EGGS WHICH IS 1½ EGGS AND ANOTHER ½ EGG. SO THE LAST PERSON BOUGHT 2 EGGS. THAT LEAVES 1 EGG REMAINING IN JACK'S BASKET THE PATH WAS 5000 PACES LONG. IF THE PATH IS STRAIGHTENED OUT INTO A LINE, ITS AREA EQUALS THE AREA OF THE WHOLE SQUARE, THAT IS, 100 X 100 SQUARE PACES. DIVIDING THE RESULT BY THE WIDTH OF THE PATH GIVES THE LENGTH (OR THE SOLUTION)