Three men have been travelling for a while.
They stop by at hotel in a city and ask for a room. The manager knows that rooms cost 25 dollars a night. He asks them for thirty dollars. They each pay 10 dollars and go up to their rooms for a while.
Later, the manager feels bad about overcharging. He asks a nearby busboy to take five one-dollar bills upstairs and pay it back to them. He agrees.
On the way up, the busboy is getting slightly worried. How is he going to divide five dollars among three people? Eventually, the busboy decides to keep two dollars for himself. He gives each of them a dollar bill and goes downstairs.
Now listen.
If each of the men gave 10$ and got back a dollar each...
They each payed nine dollars. That means they payed 27 dollars in total.
The busboy kept TWO dollars.
That makes 29 dollars.
Where did the other dollar go?
Something tells me this should be incredibly easy to figure out, but my brain is absolutely stuck.
I'ma go with "Some guy stole it and bought a Dr Pepper with it" until someone comes up with the right answer 'cause I probably won't o_o
~Shadowed Spirit Sage
There is no right answer.
They all paid $10. They just got paid back. The boy can go to hell. *shot* =P
However, in Soviet Russia, you pay zero for every night. =D
.... ARGH. Then feel proud for you have officially broken my brain trying to get an answer for this unanswerable question. XD
~Shadowed Spirit Sage
Here's the thing. This could actually happen in real life.
Suppose it did. What would you do?
You can't do anything.
They give 30 dollars (the three men).
The manager decides to pay back 5 dollars to make up for overcharging.
In the grand scheme of things, this brings the main dollar total back down to 25.
The bus boy leaves three dollars at the rooms. This brings it to 28.
He keeps the last two for himself.
28 + 2 = 30
There.
But they each paid 9 dollars in total. That's 27, not 28.
The other dollar remained with the hotel manager.
Think about it. If the three men had only paid $8, they'd have $24. So, let's think about six dollars, then, instead of five. Three of said six dollars goes back to the men, bringing the number of dollars being tossed around up to $27. The busboy keeps $2, bringing us up to $29. So where did that last dollar go? Well, as it stands they've only paid $24, but they're SUPPOSED to pay $25. So that lone remaining dollar would have to go to the manager to pay for their stay, bringing the number of dollars being tossed around up to $30 again.
So yeah, even if you CAN'T see it from my description, I'd say that's the "right" answer.
Alternatively, look at it this way: the men paid $27. That's $25 for the room, and $2 to the busboy.
Actually, It's a trick question. The math in the Story was wrong. I've heard this story about a thousand times, Ultra wins. ^__^
*skips off*
..this is why i did incredubly badly in maths. oo; *puzzled*
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They each payed nine dollars. That means they payed 27 dollars in total.
The busboy kept TWO dollars.
That makes 29 dollars.
Impossible Box is messing with you by mixing variables. 27 dollars is the total they spent, $25 to the manager and $2 to the busboy. Take out the statement that that makes 29 dollars, and it all makes sense.
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Same principle as the trick question, but you confused yourself. 😛
Doh, never mind. I completely misread what you said, Ultra.
Geez, this topic actually made me feel smart. After reading it I was like, " Eh, doesn't 30-2= 28?", but I was positive my math was off because it always is, but it turns out I was right for once....I'm scared OO;. Kudos to Ultra for being the first to bust it though.
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Same principle as the trick question, but you confused yourself. 😛
Not really. No confusion here.
They don't call you The Impossible Box for nothing o.o
Still, it's only retroactively that the missing dollar becomes missing, in the present tense, every dollar is made up for 30 - 5. It's only when you do the maths of applying the missing dollar to the original transaction that everything becomes trippy. See there's no answer, because all of it is accounted for, they paid 30, got 5 back. We can't say "They each paid 9" because then we're taking the 2 out of the equation, and the 2 dollars WAS paid when the original transaction took place, which is why the maths works, removing the 2 dollars from the picture messes with the variables of the original transaction.
Thusly there is no missing dollar at all, it's just a bit of trickery of taking the formula with the full amount of money and 3 men, then removing 2 units from the total and unbalancing things.
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But they each paid 9 dollars in total. That's 27, not 28.
...that your "extra dollar" is with the men paying the fee. ;p
Your reasoning though is one of the reasons so many people get word problems wrong in math. The reverse logic forgets where the $27 dollars actually went ($25 for room, $2 for busboy). In this case, your logic is accounting for busboy's amount twice (to suddenly get $29), not once (which leaves it at $27). ;p
P.S. Editted for clarity. ;p
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...that your "extra dollar" is with the men paying the fee. ;p
Your reasoning though is one of the reasons so many people get word problems wrong in math. The reverse logic forgets where the $27 dollars actually went ($25 for room, $2 for busboy). In this case, your logic is accounting for busboy's amount twice (to suddenly get $29), not once (which leaves it at $27). ;p
Would you stop talking? I'm trying to get you all confused. Your ruining everything. ARGH.
^ makes me look smart
But I happen to be working toward becoming a certified math teacher. ;p
Right now I just assist or sub for teachers in either math, Spanish, English, social studies, or various sciences because of my overall general knowledge. ;p
Ah, fake logic.
I've heard nastier...
