A riddle for you

[muckshifter]

You've heard the old story, I'm sure, but here it is again.
Three travelling men arrive at a motel. The manager informs them he only has one room available, so the men decide to share the room. The price is thirty dollars for the night. Each man is to pay ten dollars.

After thinking about it, the manager feels he overcharged the men and decides to refund some of the money. He gives his assistant five one-dollar bills and tells him to divide it among the travellers. The assistant has no idea how to divide five dollars among three men, so he decides to keep two dollars for himself and give each of the men one dollar each. This means that each man paid nine dollars for the room, right? Three times nine equals twenty-seven. The assistant kept two, which makes twenty-nine. Where did the other dollar go?

Answers welcome ... for those of you that know the answer ... keep it to yourself for a couple of days.

 

[Dougster]

Well it's been more than a few days, so here goes. I haven't really got an "answer", but I can see why things look wrong.

The problem is, the maths that's being suggested it flawed. Why would you want to add $2 to the $27 the men paid? The $2 is part of the $27. So you have: $27 take $2 gives you the $25 that the hotel was paid.

Hope that makes sense.

 

[Cheese]

Originally posted by Dougster
Well it's been more than a few days, so here goes. I haven't really got an "answer", but I can see why things look wrong.

The problem is, the maths that's being suggested it flawed. Why would you want to add $2 to the $27 the men paid? The $2 is part of the $27. So you have: $27 take $2 gives you the $25 that the hotel was paid.

Hope that makes sense.

Yep... that was my answer

r.

 

[muckshifter]

oops ... I forgot all about this thread.

"This means that each man paid nine dollars for the room, right? Three times nine equals twenty-seven. The assistant kept two, which makes twenty-nine."

This is the part that is incorrect. You have to factor in all involved parties. There are three parties:

- the motel manager
- the assistant
- the three travellers

let's look at the cash that all three parties have at any point:

before the initial payment:
motel 0
assistant 0
travellers 30

after the initial payment:
motel 30
assistant 0
travellers 0

after the motel manager decides to refund:
motel 25
assistant 5
travellers 0

after the assistant divvies up the money:
motel 25
assistant 2
travellers 3

It always totals up to 30 bucks. There never was a missing dollar. Posing an incorrect question to the reader with the intention to mislead only implied it

$9 x 3 guys + $5 - $2 = $30
Algebraic Expression:
9(3) + 5 - 2 = 30
27 + 5 - 2 = 30
32 - 2 = 30
30 = 30

Problem solved!

 

[Cheese]

lol... that solution might be classed a little long winded

hehe

r.

 

[muckshifter]

Just pointing out all the "options".

 

[kristel]

Lol - I've read this one before And my answer stands: What other dollar?

Cunningly worded to suggest you should add 2+27, when in actual fact it's 25+2+3

 

[JoeCool.1]

well the answer is quite simple... see... uncle sam (or prince charles or whatever the tax man is called whereever this place is thats reading it is) took the dollar and gave it to a needy person (such as themselves..) its realy simple realy
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