neat math riddle

reply to post by PhoenixOD


My bad ... isn't maths fun!

Ok, I admit it, I'm the bellboy, c'mon guys, its just $2!
It wont make you go bankrupt in anyway. Jeez, some people so cheap, even at $1!

Anyway, I'll shamelessly promote my thread (Game: Basic math skill)

This Did not rack my brain too much trying to figure this out, but rather the many of the ways this could be figured out!

Way 1 is to just pick it apart, treat the hotel, the boy, and the men as three separate equations where the hotel has 25, the boy has 2 and the men have 3. Not exactly a way to figure out where the math went wrong, but it does assure you that it did.

Another way is to say each man paid 8.33 to the hotel, .66 to the bell boy, and 1 to themselves.

The way to find the fallacy in the math is to note that 27 is not the total room bill, but rather the amount less the men have at the end of the day. . 9x3 is very well 27, the amount they now believe is paid to the hotel, and they hold in their hands the 3 required to equal the original 30.

It's about not getting tripped up about the bell boy having 2 dollars, because the 2 dollars is still a part of the bill to the men... realizing that 27 is a good number to go off of when you realize it includes both hotel cost, and bell boy pocketing, then we already know where the last 3 are! :-)

Cheers

FFS - this is not a maths riddle - but a silly word game - a dishonest one at that

step 1 men 30, hotel 0 , bellboy 0
step 2 men 0, hotel 30 , bellboy 0
step 3 men 0, hotel 25, bellboy 5
step 4 men 3, hotel 25 , bellboy 2

there is never anything missing - or any fraction - IF you do it via arithmetic not idioticly deceptive word plays

CoherentlyConfused
reply to post by Korg Trinity

 

Please explain. Without any math, since it's not really a math problem. I mean, I read your replies before, which contained all kinds of irrelevant math problems, so .... I really am confused now.
What did I miss here? Something has gone over my head. Thanks.

I was attempting to prove that the original statement was untrue using math.

What happened was, people misunderstood my intentions.

Math is fun and I thought people may appreciate the fun in my math... but I guess that was not to be.

Peace,

Korg.

reply to post by saneguy


Love this one and hated it when my professor explained it as being two sets of two separate calculations and the last coin, well it never existed. I still enjoy telling the ever fun math puzzle though, it can bring in a free pint or two by the bar for sure Thanks for bringing it back up to my attention, I was actually thinking about it the other day, but I couldn't quite remember it. So thanks a lot! S&F

Normally people would...

$30 - $3(because bell boy took $2) = $27.. then would divide this by 3(for each men), which would be $9 each + $2 from bell boy = $29.

The problem with this is that this calculation is done improperly because actions are mixed into percent. Divide from overall total instead of dividing from new total(after bellboy stole the money), applying division on the full amount after bellboy took his shares(changing the calculation total) give wrong answer.


Best to look at it separately.

Clerk has $25, men got $3 back from bell boy, = 28,( or $9.33 each) + $2 = $30.

Men think they were charged $28, not $25, so for them it will work out well. As an Observant person, We know too much information, which is causing the problem, we are including the stolen amount into the equation while assuming they got $5 back.

Gah! i suck at explaining, but i know how it works.

reply to post by luciddream


Man isn't made to comprehend irrational numbers from nature's side, that's why learning geometry is so important to give a visual language for the brain to handle irrational numbers. It's kinda hard to imagine π through aritmatics other than punching in 3.14 on your calculator and use a mirror to read PIE.

In geometry π is merely a circle folded in two, or a circle drawn on the builders' floor with a line straight through it's center. In principle, that solution is even more accurate than what any odd calculator can produce.