Bean Counting
Betty’s Beanary held a contest recently. All last month the window contained a jar of beans, and visitors were invited to guess how many beans were in the jar. Amazingly, five people guessed the right number, so Betty shrewdly asked all five back for a special tiebreaking contest, and the local news picked up on it, too. Betty set out a new and much larger jar of beans, and each of the five (Augie, Bobbie, Castor, Dina, and Evie) had 30 seconds to come up with a guess. Under time pressure, no one had much of a chance to do an accurate estimate, and the guesses varied wildly (2000, 2500, 3000, 4000, and 5000). One of the guesses, by a remarkable coincidence, was exactly right, and that guesser won first prize. The others were ranked and given runner-up prizes according to how close their guesses were, and if two guesses were equal numbers away from the right answer, then the guess below the right answer was ranked ahead of the guess that was above it. (for example, if the first place guess were 2500 beans, then second place would go to the 2000-bean guesser, and third to the 3000-bean guesser.) Can you match each contestant with his or her guess and rank of finish?
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