Missing Dollar Riddle
You might have heard this one.
I tried to rewrite it to Spanish but quickly gave up.
Three men check into a hotel for the night. The clerk tells them it costs $30, so each man pays $10 and goes to bed. Later on in the night, the clerk realizes that the price was in fact $25, so to remedy this he sends the bellboy up to the rooms of the three men to return the $5 owed to them.
However the bellboy realizes that he can't divide $5 equally among three people, so he "helps" them with this problem and pockets $2. Then he returns the remaining $3 to each of the three men, one dollar per man.
Now, each man paid $9 instead of $10 because of the dollar returned to each of them, which adds up to $27 dollars paid for the night stay. The bellhop took $2. $27 + $2 = $29. But the men originally paid with $30. Where did the other dollar go???
3 Answers
The initial payment of $30 is accounted for as the clerk takes $25, the bellhop takes $2, and the guests get a $3 refund. It adds up. After the refund has been applied, we only have to account for a payment of $27. Again, the clerk keeps $25 and the bellhop gets $2. This also adds up.
There is no reason to add the $2 and $27 – the $2 is contained within the $27 already. Thus the addition is meaningless. Instead the $2 should be subtracted from the $27 to get the revised bill of $25.
This becomes clearer when the initial and net payments are written as simple equations. The first equation shows what happened to the initial payment of $30:
$30 (initial payment) = $25 (to clerk) + $2 (to bellhop) +$3 (refund) The second equation shows the net payment after the refund is applied (subtracted from both sides):
$27 (net payment) = $25 (to clerk) + $2 (to bellhop) Both equations make sense, with equal totals on either side of the equal sign. The correct way to get the bellhop's $2 and the guests $27 on the same side of the equal sign ("The bellhop has $2, and the guests paid $27, how does that add up?") is to subtract, not add:
$27 (final payment) - $2 (to bellhop) = $25 (to clerk)
The dollar is not missing.
Before Check In
- Guest 1: $10
- Guest 2: $10
- Guest 3 :$10
- Clerk: $0
- Bellhop: $0
- Total: $30
After Refund:
- Guest 1: $1
- Guest 2: $1
- Guest 3: $1
- Clerk: $25
- Bellhop: $2
- Total: $30
I personally think that basic math is nothing but a estimate, because 3 * 9 is 27 + 2 is 29 so im gonna have to go go wit an answer wit a question where did that other **** dollar go? lol
