Heres a riddle that pissed me off...

[JMG]

So someone posted this riddle on another forum:


Three business men were traveling together to attend a conference out of state. They had been traveling for along time and decided to get a few hours of sleep at a small hotel before the conference. They all go in the hotel and head toward the counter. They tell the receptionist they would like 3 rooms. He tells them each room is $30 so that will be $90. Since it was already 1:30 am and they would be leaving at 5:30 they decide renting 3 rooms isn't worth the money so they will instead rent 1 rooms for $30 and split the cost among the three. So each business man pays $10. The men all pay and head back to their rooms. Meanwhile, the receptionists realized that he made a mistake by forgetting to give them a business discount. With the discount a room is only $25. He hands the bell boy $5 and tells him to take it back to the men and divide it among them. On the way to their room the bell boy realizes its going to be a mess trying to divide $5 equally 3 ways, so he decides he will only give them $3 back and will pocket $2 for himself. The bellboy arrives at their room and gives each of them $1. The bell boy pockets $2.

Now originally each man payed $10 for a room but each one was refunded by $1 which means each man only payed $9 for the room. Now here is where it gets tricky. They originally payed $30 for the hotel room. After their refund each man payed $9 and you had 3 men, that would equal $27 because 9 X 3 = 27. The bell boy pocketted $2. So 27 + 2 = 29. Now we have $29 but we originally had $30. So $30 - $29 = $1

So, what happened to the extra $1? How do you account for it missing?

I "solved" it pretty fast, but what pissed me off is that he claimed that there is no solution, but just a mathematical fault. BS. THere is a solution... I thought you guys would have fun with this... I'll post the answer if no one gets it.

[fanuvbrak]

it's all about (), man.

[cassdesigns]

Person A = $10
Person B= $10
Person C= $10

now A+B+C= 30, but because of discount, it is -$5 = $25....

Bellboy takes $2 meaning $5-$2= $3

now $30-$3 = $27 bucks and $27/ABC equals $9 each so a dollar is missing right?...

let me add to this one.... what if....

bellboy takes 3 dollars instead of 2..... this means that the $30 that ABC paid is actually $28 paid so A & B paid $9 and C paid $10
but the bellboy took $3 this time..... $28 + $3= $31??????? what does this mean?

[offroader1006]

it means your not taking fractions into account

when they paid 30, each paid 10, but when 5 is refunded each ends up paying 8 1/3, which totals to 25, add the dollar a peice from the bell boy and you have 9 1/3 paid three ways

9 1/3 x 3 = 30

[Wholsea]

There really is *no* answer. It is a simple accounting problem with a confusing description...

10 + 10 + 10 = 30
30 - 5 = 25
5 - 3 = 2

All money accounted for...

[jkimspe]

Originally posted by offroader1006
it means your not taking fractions into account

when they paid 30, each paid 10, but when 5 is refunded each ends up paying 8 1/3, which totals to 25, add the dollar a peice from the bell boy and you have 9 1/3 paid three ways

9 1/3 x 3 = 30

bingo

[Ben@SpeedBarn]

Yeah at the end it should be 27-2=25(price after discount) instead of 27+2 =29

[skibum525]

like said earlier fractions aren't being taken into account. Its not $27 they paid its $28......think of it this way.....they give 30 bucks
5 is given back (currently in the hands of the bellboy) so the 3 paid $25 cummulatively. the bell boy is going to give them back the 3 dollars. 26,27,28.....the bell boy keeps the remaining 2 dollars. 28+2 = 30....problem solved

[JMG]

Originally posted by skibum525
like said earlier fractions aren't being taken into account. Its not $27 they paid its $28......think of it this way.....they give 30 bucks
5 is given back (currently in the hands of the bellboy) so the 3 paid $25 cummulatively. the bell boy is going to give them back the 3 dollars. 26,27,28.....the bell boy keeps the remaining 2 dollars. 28+2 = 30....problem solved

You don't need fractions to solve this one, but you have the right idea.

They paid $25 (after the $5 discount)
Since the bellboy basically stole the $2, they actually paid $27. (25+2). 25 to the hotel, 2 to the bellman. All other details are just there to confuse you and create the scenario. It doesn't matter that there are 3 businessmen, because they all paid the same amount.

There is no extra dollar. You don't add 2 to 27 to balance it out, you subtract 2 from 27 making it 25. The 5 dollars was already theirs so adding 2 wouldn't work. That's the answer.

[skibum525]

nice