Matt is the fiftieth fastest and the fiftieth slowest runner in his school. Assuming no two runners are the same speed, how many runners are in Matt’s school?
Answer
There are 99 runners in Matt’s school.
This is tricky. If Matt is the fiftieth fastest runner, he would be number 50 in the sequence 1, 2, 3…50. To be the fiftieth slowest, he’d have to be number 50 in the sequence 50, 51, 52…99, since there are fifty numbers from 50 to 99 inclusive.