My second story problem. Please help me.?

Question

A fireman stood on the middle rung of a ladder pouring water on a building. As the smoke cleared, he stepped up 3 rungs. A sudden flareup forced him to go down 5 rungs. Later he climbed 7 rungs to work on the fire. Then he climbed the remaining 6 rungs to the top of the ladder and stepped off to stand on the roof. How many rungs did the ladder have.

***Please help by solving the problem as logical and understandable as possible.Thanks***

Answer 1

23. IM SURE. i drew it out

Answer 2

I'd say the ladder has 23 rungs.

He was in the middle at first so that tells us two things.

1) There are an odd number of rungs on the ladder

2) The number of rungs on both side of that rung are equal.

So we mark that rung. The rest is simple math.

Call the middle rung X and use it as a timeline. Let's work out how many rungs are at the top of X.

First step: X+3

Second step: X+3-5 = X-2

Third: X-2 +7 = X+5

Fourth: X+5 +6 = X+11

That means there are 11 rungs at the top of the ladder. Both sides have to be equal so 11 at the top + 11 at the bottom = 22 rungs then add in the middle rung to make 23 :)