Can you solve the puzzle below?

Question

Suppose you have a bunch of wooden beds, each weighing 200 pounds each, arranged in a pyramid. The base layer is 5 beds by 5 beds, the layer above is 4 beds by 4 beds, and so on until the top layer of one bed. They are arranged in such a way that each bed is resting on four beds below it, one leg on each bed.

If the weight on each bed is always equally distributed to all four legs, and each bed leg can only support 200 pounds, how many pounds can you place on top of the topmost bed? Please round to the nearest pound.

Answer 1

You are already in trouble.  The top bed is 200 lbs.  So it's weight is equally distributed to the 4 beds below it.  Thus each one is carrying the equivalent of 50lbs.  Adding the 200 lbs for each bed, the total weight of a bed in the 2nd layer (from the top) is now 250 lbs.

If you think of the bed in the center of the 3rd layer, it has 1/4 of these four beds, times 4, or 250 lbs.  So that middle bed is already overloaded and will break.

Given the wording of the problem the answer is either negative, or not possible.

Answer 2

800 pounds

Answer 3

0lbs because it is the TOP bed

Answer 4

the topmost bed has 4 legs so 800 pounds