Wren on :
I ate it.
Monday, November 14. 2005Math can be hard, too!
Three friends check into a motel for the night and the clerk tells them the bill is $30, payable in advance. So, they each pay the clerk $10 and go to their room.
A few minutes later, the clerk realizes he has made an error and overcharged the trio by $5. He asks the bellhop to return $5 to the 3 friends who had just checked in. The bellhop sees this as an opportunity to make $2 as he reasons that the three friends would have a tough time dividing $5 evenly among them; so he decides to tell them that the clerk made a mistake of only $3, giving a dollar back to each of the friends. He pockets the leftover $2. Now, each of the three friends gets a dollar back, thus they each paid $9 for the room which is a total of $27 for the night. We know the bellhop pocketed $2 and adding that to the $27, you get $29, not $30 which was originally spent. Where's the missing dollar? Trackbacks
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Ancient Of Days on :
One amusing answer I've seen in times past goes something like this:
Later that same night, 2 other friends arrive, and pay $30 ($15 each) for a room. Our forgetful clerk realizes that he's just made the same mistake, and orders the bellhop to take the $5 up to the pair of friends. Being the crafty devil that he is, the bellhop once again sees an opportunity to skim off the top, as the 2 people won't be able to split $5 evenly. He pockets $3, and returns one dollar to each of the guests. The pair of guests have now each spent $14 for their room, bringing us to a total of $28. With the $3 the bellhop pocketed...HEY! THERE'S THAT MISSING DOLLAR! :) Mad Giggler on :
nice
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