Pages 6 and 27 are on the same (double) sheet of a newspaper, how many pages are there in the news paper altogether

Question

I was never really good at maths, trying to get back into it.

I have this question:

Pages 6 and 27 are on the same (double) sheet of a newspaper, what are the page numbers on opposite sides of the sheet and how many pages are there in the newspaper altogether

This seems like a trick question... I am not too sure how to take the logic, but I suppose pages 5 and 28 are the numbers on opposite sides of the page?

How do I get the total pages of the newspaper altogether? I am assuming we add the missing pages, 1 thru 4 (4 pages in total) to 27 to get 31?

Not sure how to solve this, and I have no answer key.

Answer 1

Assume the paper is formed by taking a pile of (printed) sheets of paper and folding it in half.

Look at the outside cover - this pairs up the first page and the last page on the outside. If there are $n$ pages altogether, the sum is $n+1$.

The other side of the same sheet has pages $2$ and $n-1$ - sum $n+1$.

In fact it is easy to see that the two pages on the same side of any of the original pieces of paper have numbers which add to $n+1$.

Here $n+1=33$ so $n=32$ - and the paper consists of $8$ folded sheets.

Answer 2

pages 6 & 27 are mentioned in the question. its means there are $5$ pages on the left of page no. 6, obviously there will be also $5$ pages more on the right of $27$. so, $27 + 5 = 32$.