Nicole writes:
3 guys go into a hotel, the guy behind the cash says that it is $15 for the room. Each guy pays $5 = $15. After they go up to the room the guy behind the cash says he charged them too much, it should only be $10 for the room. So he takes $5 out of the till and goes up to the room and gives each guy back $1 and keeps $2 for himself. So now each guy has paid $4 for the room. 4 x 3 = $12 plus the $2 that the guy behind the counter kept, that equals $14. Where did the other dollar go??
Read on for the answer.
The answer to her question is that the other dollar didn’t go anywhere. The ending analysis couples two unrelated numbers to reach the $14 quantity. While it is true that each of the three guests has paid $4, totalling $12, you cannot add the $2 the guy behind the cash register has kept for himself to this number and expect it to mean anything in the context.
The guy behind the cash register charged the three guests $10 for the room. When you add to this the $2 he keeps for himself, you reach your $12 total that the guests have paid. Bob said it best, "You can’t write this riddle down because you can always read it over." So, read it over and make sure I did the math right.
That was great!!!! Thank you!!!
actually each to be even would have to pay $3.33333 each since they only paid 3 they each owed .33333
As far as the books will show, the three guests did only pay $3.33 each, with one of them paying a penny more. The guy behind the register took an additional $0.66 from each guy (again with one paying a penny more) to keep for himself. There are any number of reasons for the guy to have taken the extra $2.00, but that is not important, just that he took it is.