Let’s take a delightful stroll down memory lane, back to the simpler days of paperbacks and hardcovers. Ah, the joy (and occasional sorrow) of flipping through those crisp pages. But wait! There’s a twist in our tale. Imagine finding out that a few pages have mysteriously vanished from your beloved book. Like Sherlock Holmes, it’s up to us to deduce just how many have been borrowed by the paper goblin!

First, we must remember that each sheet of paper in a book sports a double-sided design. Yes, each sheet—like a coin—has two faces. If you tear out a sheet, you aren’t just losing one page; you’re bidding adieu to both. For instance, pages 7 and 8 cozy up on the same sheet. So, tearing out this single sheet means waving both pages goodbye.

So where does this mathematical mystery lead us? Let’s break out the trusty abacus (or, in modern terms, the smartphone calculator). If three precious sheets have been cruelly ripped away, you’ve lost twice as many pages. Drum roll, please… That’s a total of 6 pages gone into the ether.