Math Question...

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#1 Post by **navynuke04** » Sat Aug 19, 2006 3:30 am

A guy at work asked me the following question. Here's the scenerio:

Three guys are going to attend a conference at a hotel. They walk up to the front desk clerk and tell him that they want to share a room and want to know how much it will be. The desk clerk is fairly new, and doesn't quite have the prices figured out yet. He tells them it will be $30.00 for the room. Each man pays him $10.00 for a total of $30.00.

A little bit later the hotel manager finds the mistake. He tells the desk clerk that all attendee's of the conference will get their rooms for $25.00. It doesn't matter if it's one person or one hundred. He gives the clerk $5.00 and tells him to go give the men their refund.

On the way to the room, the clerk can't decide how to evenly split the $5.00 between three people. He pockets $2.00 thinking that they will never know the difference. He knocks on the door and explains to the men that he over charged them, and gives each man a $1.00 bill.

The men each paid $10.00 for the room, but received a $1.00 discount. This means that they paid $9.00 a piece for the room. $9.00 times 3 equals $27.00. When you add the $2.00 that the clerk kept for himself, you get $29.00.

What happened to the other dollar??? 8o

adeyke · #2 Post by **adeyke** » Sat Aug 19, 2006 6:37 am

This again

.

It's a trick question, or rather, a question that doesn't make any sense. It's true that they paid $27 total. However, this includes the $2 that went to the clerk. So by adding that on at the end, it's being counted twice. The resulting $29 doesn't actually have any meaning in this situation.

Money at start: $10 on each of three guests = $30
Money at end: $1 on each of three guests, $2 on clerk, $25 for room = $30

Defiant1 · #3 Post by **Defiant1** » Sat Aug 19, 2006 1:27 pm

A friend of mine asked me that question a couple years ago, and now I feel somewhat guilty for just reading the answer. Granted, I never put TOO much thought into it, but it did bother me at one point. Or maybe I'm just trying to justify myself. It makes so much sense now.

elfwizard · #4 Post by **elfwizard** » Mon Sep 11, 2006 1:09 am

The clerk had to return 5:3=1.67$ to every man. So 10-1.67=8.33$ is the ammount that spent each one. 8.33X3=25$ total. So the target is 25$ NOT 30$. It went at 27$ just because clerc kept 2$ for himself.

Nice tricky problem. I felt tottaly confused for a while. I liked it. I had to listen similar questions from my school age.

Nice!!!

Quest For Glory Fan · #5 Post by **Quest For Glory Fan** » Mon Sep 11, 2006 1:12 am

I heard a simmilar one when I was in boy scouts but the numbers were smaller, I got it right away.