Carcass wrote:
Given a positive integer \(c\), how many integers are greater than c and less than \(2c\)?
A. \(\frac{c}{2}\)
B. \(c\)
C. \(c - 1\)
D. \(c - 2\)
E. \(c + 1\)
Recall that the number of integers between two integers a and b, inclusive, is b - a + 1. However, here we want the numbers of integers between c and 2c, excluding themselves. Therefore, the number of integers is 2c - c + 1 - 2 = c - 1. Note that we subtracted 2 on the left side of the equation because we needed to exclude the endpoint values c and 2c.
Alternate Solution:
We can express the integers between c and 2c as c + 1, c + 2, … , c + (c - 1). Since c + 1 is the first integer, c + 2 is the second integer and so on, c + (c - 1) is the c - 1st integer.
Answer: C