Book 1A Ch 5 Estimation in Numbers and Measurement

Supplementary Ex5A Introduction to Estimation

Refer to §5.1

 Level 1
T1 1. Determine whether to do estimation or to work out the exact value in each of the following
situations.
(a) A waiter calculates the amount of the bill of a customer.
(b) An engineer wants to find the lifetime of an air-conditioner.
(c) A tour guide counts the number of members in the group before moving on to the next
sightseeing point.
(d) A reporter wants to find out the number of people watching the fireworks.

2. Why do we need to do estimation in each of the following situations? Choose the most
suitable reasons provided.
limitation in measurement to simplify calculation
to make it easier to understand exact value is not available

(a) The number of residents in an estate is about 3000.

(b) The speed of a car on a highway is about 72 km/h.
(c) The number of audience of a radio programme is about 1560.

T2 3. Estimate the values of the following expressions by rounding off each number to the nearest
ten.
(a) 62 + 235 (b) 56  13.8

4. Estimate the values of the following expressions by rounding off each number to the nearest
hundred.
(a) 1571 – 433.5 (b) 495  106

T3 5. Estimate the values of the following expressions by rounding up each number to the nearest
integer.
(a) 3.8 + 23.5  9.1 (b) 5.2  4.8  9.7

6. Estimate the values of the following expressions by rounding up each number to the nearest
ten.
(a) (57.1  8.4)  24 (b) 61.3 + 43.5  7.8

61 Mathematics in Action (3rd Edition)

 Supplementary Exercises

T4 7. Estimate the values of the following expressions by rounding down each number to the nearest
thousand.
(a) 1295 + 5672  2914 (b) 3547  4823  1726

8. Estimate the values of the following expressions by rounding down each number to the nearest
integer.
(a) 280.7  8.3  35.2 (b) 196.2  (5.7 + 2.6)

9. (a) Round off 1024.537 to the nearest integer.

(b) Round up 1024.537 to the nearest thousand.
(c) Round down 1024.537 to the nearest 2 decimal places.

T5 10. In each of the following, write down the clustered value of the numbers.
(a) 132, 127, 126, 134 (b) 5.9, 5.2, 6.0, 5.7, 5.5, 5.0

11. Use a suitable clustered value to estimate the value of 18 + 19 + 19 + 20 + 21 + 22.

12. Use a suitable clustered value to estimate the value of 352 + 335 + 328 + 373 + 347.

T6 13. Use compatible numbers to estimate the values of the following expressions.
(a) 10.05 + 89.83 (b) 352.6 – 47.4

14. Use compatible numbers to estimate the values of the following expressions.
(a) 19  5.17 (b) 73  8.8

T7 15. Using translation strategy, estimate the values of the following expressions.
(a) 191.5 + 58.6 – 94 (b) 2682 – 57 + 310 – 46

16. Using translation strategy, estimate the values of the following expressions.

(a) 352  14  (b) 59.8  3.86  6.05

17. The weights (in kg) of 5 boxes are shown below:

2.3, 3.0, 3.2, 2.7, 3.6
Use a suitable clustered value to estimate the total weight of these 5 boxes.

18. There are 43 chapters in a novel. Each chapter has about 28 pages. Use compatible numbers to
estimate the total number of pages in the novel.
Mathematics in Action (3rd Edition) 62
 Book 1A Ch 5 Estimation in Numbers and Measurement

19. The ages of 6 volunteers are shown below:

27, 29, 33, 39, 46, 55
Estimate the average age of these 6 volunteers by rounding off each of the above numbers to
the nearest ten.

T8 20. The price of a bottle of drink is $9.8. By rounding up the price of each bottle of drink, estimate
the amount required for buying two dozen bottles of drink.

 Level 2

T9 21. Determine whether the estimation in each of the following expressions is reasonable. State
your estimation strategy used.
(a) 3.51 – 1.74 + 4.49 – 5.23  1 (b) 62.5  28.2  4.3  30

22. Estimate whether the result of 65 + 82 + 88 + 103 + 108 + 110 is greater than 500.

23. Estimate whether the result of 19.5 + 18.7 + 24.6 + 16.9 + 29.1 is less than 90.

24. A stadium has 49 rows of seats and each row has about 62 seats. Estimate the total number of
seats in the stadium.

25. Hilary wakes up at 9:30 a.m. this morning. First, she takes 8 minutes to brush her teeth and
wash her face. Then, she takes 15 minutes to dress up. Finally, she has her breakfast for
26 minutes before going out. Estimate whether Hilary can go out before 10:30 a.m.

26. The original remaining value in Tiffany’s Octopus card is $9.1. She adds $50 to her Octopus
card and then uses it to pay $8.4 for bus fare and $25 for lunch. Estimate whether the balance
in Tiffany’s Octopus card is positive or negative after these transactions.

27. There are 6 persons in a lift and their weights (in kg) are shown below:
61.2 59.2 74.8 58.9 66.6 72.7
The maximum load of the lift is 420 kg.
(a) Estimate the total weight of the 6 persons by rounding up the weight of each person to the
nearest 10 kg.
T10 (b) Determine whether the lift will be overloaded for carrying these 6 persons. Explain your

answer. p. 76 Explain Demo

63 Mathematics in Action (3rd Edition)

Supplementary Exercises

28. (a) Estimate the value of 12 000  245 by

(i) rounding up 245 to the nearest ten,
(ii) rounding down 245 to the nearest ten.
(b) In a Christmas party, Ivan prepares 12 L of soft drink. The soft drink is poured into cups
of 245 mL each. Using the result of (a), estimate the maximum number of cups of soft
drink he can prepare if each cup is fully filled.

29. Sandy baked 117 cookies and she wants to put them in some boxes. If 6 cookies can be put in
each box, at least how many boxes are needed to pack all the cookies?

30. In a shopping centre, customers can join a lucky draw for purchase of $2000 or above.
Michelle bought 4 items which cost $506, $724, $377 and $482 respectively. Estimate whether
she can join the lucky draw. Explain your answer. p. 76 Explain Demo

31. Kelvin cycles from his home to city A, which is 42 km away. After 1.5 hours, he has travelled
30.8 km.
(a) Estimate the average cycling speed of Kelvin.
(b) Assuming Kelvin cycles at the same speed in (a) throughout the whole journey, estimate
whether he can arrive city A in 2 hours. Explain your answer.

32. There are 39 hospitals in a city. The numbers of male patients and female patients in the
hospitals are 8425 and 7571 respectively.
(a) Estimate the total number of patients in the hospitals in that city.
(b) A doctor estimates that the average number of patients in each hospital is about 800. Do
you agree with him? Explain your answer.

33. Sally goes to school 22 days on average in a month. Her mother gives her $1500 pocket money
a month. On each school day, she spends $10.6 on transportation and about $28 on lunch. In
each month, she spends about $400 on entertainment.
(a) Estimate the amount Sally saves in a month.
(b) Sally wants to buy a school bag which costs $620. She estimates that she can buy the
school bag by saving money for 3 months. Do you agree with her? Explain your answer.

Mathematics in Action (3rd Edition) 64

 Book 1A Ch 5 Estimation in Numbers and Measurement

Supplementary Ex5B Estimation in Measurement

Refer to §5.2

 Level 1
T11 1. Consider the following measuring tools.
T12 ruler watch electronic balance
stopwatch measuring cup mechanical scale
Which of the above measuring tools is / are used to measure
(a) weight? (b) length?
(c) time? (d) capacity?

2. Consider the following units for measurement.

cm g m3 h
mL mm min kg
Which of the above units are used to measure
(a) weight? (b) length?
(c) time? (d) capacity?

3. Choose an appropriate measuring tool for each of the following measurements.

(a) The weight of a bag of apples (mechanical scale / electronic balance)
(b) The length of an LCD monitor (ruler / steel measuring tape)
(c) The volume of a carton of milk (measuring cylinder / measuring cup)
(d) The time for reading a newspaper article (watch / stopwatch)

4. Choose an appropriate measuring unit for each of the following measurements.

(a) The time for having a bath (h / min / s)
(b) The weight of a bicycle (kg / g / mg)
(c) The capacity of a fish tank (L / mL)
(d) The length of a painting (m / cm / mm)

T13 5. Write down an appropriate degree of accuracy for each of the following measurements.
(a) The length of an ant (b) The weight of a pill
(c) The volume of a box of juice

65 Mathematics in Action (3rd Edition)

 Supplementary Exercises

T14 6. Write down the scale intervals of the following measuring tools.
(a) (b)

T15 7. In each of the following, write down the reading and the degree of accuracy of measurement.
(a) (b)

8. In each of the following, write down the reading and the degree of accuracy of measurement.
(a) (b)

T16 9. Choose the most appropriate benchmark for each of the following measurements.
length of a desk length of a hand span length of a foot step diameter of a $1 coin
(a) The length of a classroom
(b) The length of a mobile phone
(c) The distance between the two goalposts in a soccer field

10. In the figure, the height of the lamppost is 6 m. Estimate the height
of the statue.

Mathematics in Action (3rd Edition) 66

 Book 1A Ch 5 Estimation in Numbers and Measurement

11. Refer to the figure. If the length of the candy is 4.5 cm, estimate
the length of the photo frame.

12. The figure shows 5 classrooms along a corridor.

If the width of each classroom is about 5.8 m, estimate
the length of the corridor.

13. The figure shows a wardrobe. Estimate the height of the

wardrobe.

14. The figure shows some circles. Estimate the

number of circles in the figure.

15. If the total weight of 150 tokens is measured as 452 g, estimate the weight of a token.

16. Nineteen 10-cent coins are stacked up and the thickness is measured as 2.9 cm.
(a) Estimate the thickness of a 10-cent coin.
(b) If the height of a cup is equal to 61 10-cent coins, estimate the height of the cup.

17. The length and the width of a rectangular football field are measured as 105 m and 68 m.
Estimate the area of the football field.

67 Mathematics in Action (3rd Edition)

 Supplementary Exercises

18. The size of a rectangular container is 5.2 cm  8.1 cm  12.7 cm. Estimate whether the
container can hold 450 cm3 of water. Explain your answer.

T17 Estimate the areas of the following figures by the counting square method. (19 – 20)
19. 20.

 Level 2

21. Suggest an appropriate measuring tool for each of the following measurements.
(a) The distance jumped by an athlete in a long jump event
(b) The thickness of a book
(c) The body temperature of an adult
(d) The amount of rainfall in a day

22. Suggest an appropriate unit and degree of accuracy for each of the following measurements.
(a) The weight of a pack of sweets
(b) The perimeter of a swimming pool
(c) The volume of an ice piece in a drink
(d) The time taken to do 20 sit-ups

23. Suggest an appropriate benchmark for each of the following measurements.

(a) The capacity of a lunchbox
(b) The radius of a can of soft drink
(c) The width of a bookshelf

24. The figure shows a bottle and a cup in a cupboard.

If the height of the bottle is 36 cm, estimate the heights of
(a) the cup,
(b) the cupboard.

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 Book 1A Ch 5 Estimation in Numbers and Measurement

25. In the figure, a worker of height 160 cm is going to climb up

a vertical wall. Estimate the height of the wall in m.

26. The figure shows some stars. Estimate the number of shaded
stars in the figure. State your estimation strategy.

27. The figure shows 3 snack shops, a supermarket and a small garden along a street. It is given
that the length of each snack shop is about 5.5 m and the length of the garden is about 4.5 m.
Snack shop A Supermarket Snack shop B Snack shop C Garden

(a) Estimate the length of the street.

(b) It is known that Harry takes 60 steps to walk along the street.
(i) Estimate how far Harry walks in one step.
(ii) At the end of the street, Harry turns left and he takes 98 more steps to walk back
home. Estimate how far Harry has to walk back home from the end of the street.

28. The figure shows a whiteboard. If the length of the marker is

14 cm, estimate
(a) the length of the whiteboard,
(b) the width of the whiteboard,
(c) the area of the whiteboard.

69 Mathematics in Action (3rd Edition)

Supplementary Exercises

29. The figure shows a box with a round pizza inside. The length of
the box is 28.8 cm.
(a) Estimate the radius (r cm) of the pizza.
(b) Using the formula A = r2, estimate the area (A cm2) of the

pizza.
28.8 cm

30. The figure shows a wall in a bathroom covered with tiles. It is

0.6 m
given that the height of the window is 0.6 m.
(a) Estimate the area of a tile.
(b) Queenie estimates that the area of the wall in the bathroom is
about 6.3 m2. Do you agree with her? Explain your answer.

31. The figure shows a box with dimensions

30 cm  20 cm  22 cm. Packs of candy with dimensions
10 cm  5 cm  4 cm each are put horizontally into the
box. Estimate the number of packs of candy the box can
carry.

32. Refer to the figure.

(a) Write down the measured length of the chalk.
T18 (b) Suggest a method to reduce the error of your answer
obtained in (a).

33. Kelly has 80 marbles. She measures that the total weight of 12 marbles is 83.6 g.
(a) Estimate the weight of a marble.
(b) Suggest one method to reduce the error of your answer obtained in (a).

34. In ancient times, ancient Egyptians obtained an estimate for the area
of a circle as follows:
‘The area of a circle of diameter 9 units is approximately equal to
Mathematics in Action (3rd Edition) 70
 Book 1A Ch 5 Estimation in Numbers and Measurement

the area of a square with side 8 units.’

Do you think the above estimation is reasonable? Explain your
answer.

71 Mathematics in Action (3rd Edition)

 Supplementary Exercises

Supplementary Ex5C Multiple Choice Questions

Refer to §5.1  5.2

 Level 1
T19 1. In each of the following situations,
determine whether the value mentioned is 5. Which of the following scales gives the
an exact value or an estimated value. weight of a potato with the highest degree
I. There are 435 seats in a theatre. of accuracy?
II. The producing cost of a movie is A. B.
$24 000 000.
I II
A. exact value exact value
B. exact value estimated value
C. estimated value exact value C. D.
D. estimated value estimated value

2. Round off 0.019 758 to 3 decimal places.

A. 0.02
B. 0.019
C. 0.020 6. Refer to the figure. What is the degree of
D. 0.0198 accuracy of the syringe?

3. What is the clustered value of the

following numbers?
2.9, 3.6, 2.5, 2.8, 3.1 A. 2 mL
A. 2.5 B. 1 mL
B. 2.8 C. 0.5 mL
C. 3.0 D. 0.1 mL
D. 3.5

4. Use compatible numbers to estimate the

value of 0.24  82.
A. 20
B. 22
C. 24
D. 26

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 Book 1A Ch 5 Estimation in Numbers and Measurement

7. Refer to the figure. What is the weight 8. The figure shows a comb and a water
of the slice of meat? bottle. If the length of the comb is 9 cm,
estimate the height of the water bottle.
A. 9 cm
B. 13.5
cm
C. 18 cm
D. 20 cm

A. 720 g (cor. to the nearest 20 g)

B. 700 g (cor. to the nearest 100 g)
C. 690 g (cor. to the nearest 10 g) 9. Vivian wants to estimate the perimeter of
D. 680 g (cor. to the nearest 20 g) the floor in a square room. She finds that
she takes 22 steps to walk along one side
of the room. If the distance between each
step is about 0.3 m, estimate the perimeter
of the room.
A. 6.6 m
B. 13.2 m
C. 26.4 m
D. 35.2 m

 Level 2
10. Which of the following CANNOT be a how much each one has to share.
possible result of 2  3 ?
A. 572
B. 768
C. 912
D. 1045

11. David, Elaine and Fanny have dinner and

they share the bill evenly. The amount of T20
the bill is $367.4. In order to ensure they
have enough money to pay for the bill,
they should
A. round up the amount of the bill.
B. round off the amount of the bill.
C. round down the amount of the bill.
D. use compatible numbers to calculate
73 Mathematics in Action (3rd Edition)
Supplementary Exercises

12. Mrs Cheung can type 29 words in a 14. A school has 4 classes of S1. Each class
minute. If she has to type 478 words, has 35 to 40 students. Among the S1
estimate the time needed. students, more than half of them are
A. 14 min female students. Which of the following
B. 16 min CANNOT be the total number of female
C. 18 min students in S1?
D. 20 min A. 68
B. 74
13. A bag contains 5 kg of rice. The bag of C. 80
rice is packed into n small bags such that D. 86
each small bag contains 240 g of rice. Find
the greatest possible value of n. 15. Which of the following uses the most
A. 2 appropriate unit and degree of accuracy to
B. 20 record the time taken to complete a quiz of
C. 21 10 short questions?
D. 48
A. Time: 0.2 h

B. Time: 0.204 h

C. Time: 12 min

D. Time: 12.24 min

16. Jenny opened a new bottle of milk and she

poured 200 mL for making a cake. The
amount of milk left is shown in the figure
below. Estimate the original amount of
milk in the bottle.

A. 100 mL
B. 400 mL
C. 500 mL
D. 800 mL

Mathematics in Action (3rd Edition) 74

 Book 1A Ch 5 Estimation in Numbers and Measurement

17. The figures below show the original reading B. Measure the total thickness of
of water in a beaker and the reading after several books of the same kind.
25 marbles are put into the beaker. Estimate C. Take readings along the correct
the volume of a marble. direction.
D. Measure the thickness of each page
of the book first.

A. 2 cm3
B. 2.5 cm3
C. 4 cm3
D. 6 cm3

18. Which of the following is NOT a method

of reducing errors when measuring the
thickness of a book?
A. Use a ruler with a finer scale
interval.

75 Mathematics in Action (3rd Edition)

Supplementary Exercises

Supplementary Ex5 Cross-topic & Challenging Qs

Refer to §5.1  5.2
D
1. Cross-topic There are 297 S1 students in a school. If 92% of the S1 students pass the
Mathematics examination, estimate the number of S1 students passing the examination.

2. Cross-topic In a school with 2476 students, there are 205 students who got grade A in Music.
Estimate how many percent of students who got grade A in Music.

3. The size of a piece of A4 paper is 29.7 cm  21 cm. At most how many rectangles of size
5 cm  6 cm can be cut from the piece of A4 paper?

4. Fiona wants to decorate the notice board in the classroom. She plans to buy some pieces of
coloured paper of size 60 cm  42 cm to cover the board. The length and the width of the
notice board are measured as 4.9 m and 1.2 m respectively. Estimate the minimum number of
pieces of coloured paper Fiona needs to cover the board.

5. The following map shows a hiking trail in Sai Kung.

C
A

(a) Kelvin starts at A and walks to B in 70 minutes. Estimate the total time taken for him to
walk from A to C.
(b) If Kelvin’s walking speed is 0.8 m/s, estimate the length of this hiking trail (from A to C)
in km.

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 Book 1A Ch 5 Estimation in Numbers and Measurement

6. Cross-topic In a bakery, the prices of bread range from $8 to $12. The number of bread sold on
a day in June is about 300.
(a) Estimate the income of the bakery from selling bread in June.
(b) It is known that the prices of bread in July increase by 20% and the number of bread sold
in a day decreases by about 50. Is it possible that the income in July exceeds $110 000?
Explain your answer.

7. At the beginning, a tank contains 12.3 L of water. Buckets A and B of capacities 1700 mL and
2.89 L respectively are used by Peter to add water to the tank. First, he uses bucket A to add
water into the tank for 11 times, and then uses bucket B to add water into the tank for 9 times.
Suppose the buckets are fully filled with water when they are used to add water.
(a) After adding water, Peter estimates that there is more than 70 L of water in the tank.
Judge the reasonableness of Peter’s estimation. Explain briefly without actual calculation.
(b) Now, a pipe is used to discharge the water in the tank. The rate of discharge is 21 L in a
minute. Estimate the maximum time taken to discharge all the water from the tank.

8. A certain brand of candies has the following types of packing:

Packing Number of candies Price ($)
Regular 50 19.9
Family 100 35.8
Party 250 98.9
(a) Determine which packing is the most economical. Explain your answer.
(b) Ricky is going to organize a party with 320 guests. How many of each packing should he
buy so that each guest has at least one candy and the cost is minimum?

9. On Halloween night, Eddie goes to a theme park for playing 5 haunted houses. When he
arrives at the first haunted house, there are 6 rows of people queuing at the haunted house. He
estimates that there are 20 people in each row. At the end of the 5th row, there is a notice
stating ‘waiting time is 60 minutes’.
(a) If Eddie queues up the haunted house now, how long does he need to wait?
(b) Suppose Eddie takes 10 minutes to play each haunted house and the waiting times of all
haunted houses are roughly the same. If Eddie enters the theme park at 6 p.m. and the
park closes at 12 a.m., does he have enough time to play all 5 haunted houses? Explain
your answer.
(You may neglect the walking time from one haunted house to another.)

77 Mathematics in Action (3rd Edition)

Supplementary Exercises

Explain Demo

Example 1
Mr Lee needs to make 150 paper planes for a party. The numbers of paper planes that he makes in
a week are as follows:
12 24 18 22 16 7 9
(a) Estimate the total number of paper planes that Mr Lee makes in that week by rounding up
each of the above numbers to the nearest ten.
(b) Determine whether Mr Lee makes enough paper planes for the party in that week. Explain
your answer.

Solution
(a) Total number of paper planes Mr Lee makes

 EYA Guide
(b) From (a), the total number of paper planes
Step 1: Use the result of (a) to check whether the
Mr Lee makes is at most 140. number of paper planes made attains 150.
Step 2: State whether Mr Lee makes enough
∴ Mr Lee cannot make enough paper planes paper planes for the party.
for the party in that week.

Example 2
Fanny buys 5 items from a supermarket. Their prices are as follows:
$68.5 $82.7 $122.8 $54.9 $90.6
If free delivery service will be provided for any purchase of $400 or above, determine whether
Fanny can enjoy the free delivery service. Explain your answer.

Solution  EYA Guide

Total price of the 5 items
Step 1: Find the total price of the items.
Step 2: Round down the price of each item to
check whether the total price exceeds
$400.
Step 3: State whether Fanny can enjoy the free
∴ The total price of the 5 items is at least $400. delivery service.

∴ Fanny can enjoy the free delivery service.

Mathematics in Action (3rd Edition) 78

 Book 1A Ch 5 Estimation in Numbers and Measurement

Keywords
Learning

Translations for questions with symbols T1

, T2 etc. are as follows:
, …,

T1 Determine whether to do estimation or to work out the 對於下列各情況，判斷應進行估算

exact value in each of the following situations. 還是計算真確值。

T2 Estimate the values of the following expressions by 把下列各數式中的數字四捨五入至

rounding off each number to the nearest ten. 最接近的十位，估算數式的值。

T3 Estimate the values of the following expressions by 把下列各數式中的數字上捨入至

rounding up each number to the nearest integer. 最接近的整數。

T4 Estimate the values of the following expressions by 把下列各數式中的數字下捨入至

rounding down each number to the nearest thousand. 最接近的千位。

T5 In each of the following, write down the clustered value 寫出下列各組數字的集中數字。

of the numbers.

T6 Use compatible numbers to estimate the values of the 使用相容數字，估算下列各數式的值。

following expressions.

T7 Using translation strategy, estimate the values of the 利用轉移策略，估算下列各數式的值。

following expressions.

T8 …, estimate the amount required for buying two dozen …，估算購買兩打瓶裝飲品所需的

bottles of drink in a box. 金額。

T9 Determine whether the estimation in each of the following 試判斷下列各數式中的估算是否

expressions is reasonable. State your estimation strategy 合理，並寫出你所用的估算策略。
used.

T10 Determine whether the lift will be overloaded for carrying 判斷該電梯負載這 6 人後，會否超過
these 6 persons. 電梯的最大負載重量。

T11 Which of the above measuring tools is /are used to 以上哪個/些量度工具可用來量度…

measure…

T12 Which of the above units are used to measure… 以上哪些單位可用來表示…

79 Mathematics in Action (3rd Edition)

Supplementary Exercises

T13 Write down an appropriate degree of accuracy for each of 試就下列各項度量，選擇一個合適的

the following measurements. 準確度。

T14 Write down the scale intervals of the following measuring 寫出以下量度工具的刻度間距。
tools.

T15 In each of the following, write down the reading and the 在下列各題中，寫出量度工具的讀數
degree of accuracy of measurement. 和準確度。

T16 Choose the most appropriate benchmark for each of the 試就下列各項度量，從方框中選擇最
following measurements. 合適的物件作為基準。

T17 Estimate the areas of the following figures by the counting 利用數算方格的方法，估算下列各圖
square method. 的面積。

T18 Suggest a method to reduce the error of your answer 試建議一個方法，以減低 (a) 中所得
obtained in (a). 答案的誤差。

T19 In each of the following situations, determine whether the 判斷下列各題中所提及的數值是真確

value mentioned is an exact value or an estimated value. 值還是估計值。

T20 Find the greatest possible value of n. 求 n 的最大可能值。

Mathematics in Action (3rd Edition) 80