John is responsible for seating arrangements at a dinner party. He has seven tables that individually seat six people. He wants to make one large table by pushing them together. He expects a total of 15 couples.

-Can he accommodate all the expected guests if he lines the tables up side-to-side? Explain

- Can he accommodate all of the expected guest if he lines the tables end to end? Explain

Question

John is responsible for seating arrangements at a dinner party.  He has seven tables that individually seat six people.  He wants to make one large table by pushing them together.  He expects a total of 15 couples.

-Can he accommodate all the expected guests if he lines the tables up side-to-side?  Explain

- Can he accommodate all of the expected guest if he lines the tables end to end? Explain

anonymous · Answer

With the tables separate, they can hold 7×6=42 people.
Lined up side-to-side, he'll lose (7-1)×4 seats and not have enough for 30 guests.
Lined up end-to-end, he'll lose (7-1)×2 seats and be OK.

This is assuming the tables look like this:
|dw:1349467237775:dw|

(Though, either way is still a bad way to set up tables...)