How many toy cars can you get to Matchbox town?

Question

You have the task of transporting 5000 toy cars to the kids in Matchbox town.
However, your semi can only hold 2500 toy cars, and you have to give up one toy car every two miles to a kid on the way there, but not on the way back.

How far away is "Matchbox town"? Or is the fact that this is unspecified part of the point of the puzzle? — Gareth McCaughan, Sep 07 '16 at 15:09
If Matchbox town is less than two miles away, you can transport 5000 toy cars to Matchbox town. If it is more than 5000 miles away, you can transport zero toy cars to Matchbox town. — Ian MacDonald, Sep 07 '16 at 15:12
Assuming I can take as many trips as I want, I can take any number of cars there... unless it's more than 5000 miles away, at which point none will get there. — TwoBitOperation, Sep 07 '16 at 15:14
@GarethMcCaughan Sconibulus answered perfectly. I forgot to specify to give an equation since I did not say how far Matchbox town was. — baranskistad, Sep 07 '16 at 17:05

score 3 · Accepted Answer · answered Sep 07 '16 at 15:14

You want to consolidate the toys from 2 truckloads to 1 truckload as soon as possible.

This is after 2500 miles

So you end up delivering

2500 - (Distance to Matchbox Town - 2500)/2 assuming the Distance is >2500, and less than 7500.

Or

(2500-Distance to Town)/2 if the distance is <2500.

Or no toys at all, if the distance is greater than

7500

How many toy cars can you get to Matchbox town?

1 Answers1