Lizzy: James wants to learn to become a chess grandmaster. It takes 2 hours to learn the rules. It then takes him 49 times that long to get a level of proficiency to start playing in local tournaments. After that, he devotes his life to chess and spends 100 times as much as the combined time to get proficient to becoming a master. How much total time did he spend?.
Me: Hmmm, let me think. I think this is the detailed solution:
It takes him 2 * 49 = 98 hours to go from knowing how to play to proficient. So he spends 98 + 2 = 100 hours combined on those. So it takes him 100 * 100 = 10,000 hours to become a master from proficient. So the total time was 100 + 10000 = 10,100 hours. Final answer: 10100.