Question

Rina, while waiting for her friend Tina, started playing with matchsticks. As the wait time was more, Rina makes the figure 262226 using the matchsticks by the time Tina reaches. Tina accidentally steps on the pattern and all the matchsticks were spread all over. Rina was upset with this and wanted to find the number of matchsticks she wasted?

• A. $21$
• B. $26$
• C. $32$
• D. $36$

Answer 1

The correct option is C $32$


From the image above, we see that 5 matchsticks are required to make 2 and 6 matchsticks are needed to make 6.
So if the number of twos is taken as 'a' and the number of sixes is taken as 'b'.
The number of matchsticks needed to make the two's $=5\times a=5a$
The number of matchsticks needed to make the six's $=6\times b=6b$
Total number of matchsticks = 5a+6b
In the number 262226, there are 4 '2's and 2 '6's.
Hence,a = 4 and b = 2

Therefore, the total number of matches required $=5a+6b=5\times 4+6\times 2$
$=20+12=32$