Broken Circle

JRich,

Three guys rent a hotel room together. The desk clerk charges them $30.00. After they leave the clerk realizes he over charged them and calls a bell hop. He hands the bell hop five $1.00 dollar bills and tells him to refund their money.

In route the bell hop is troubled on how he is going to distribute (5) $1.00 bills to three persons and decides to take the easy way out. He pockets two (2) dollars and then proceeds to give them each $1.00 back.

Since they originally paid $10.00 each and just got $1.00 back they have each now paid $9.00 or 3 x $9 = $27 plus the $2.00 the bell boy has is $29.00. What happended to the $1.00?

"Imagination is more important than Knowledge" -- Albert Einstien

mac

how about putting it this way,on $30.00 they got back $5.00,leaving $25.00.bell hop gives each $1.00 back,making $28.00 add $2.00 = $30.00.

when dividing $25.00 by 3 they actually get back $8.33 not $9.00,the $0.33 is your missing $1.00!!

north,

You cheated. HeHeHe.[] You are on the right track but remembr they physically got back $1.00 and they each initially paid $10.00, so they actually paid $9.00 each.

25/3 = 8.333333 and 3 x 0.3333 = 1, so now you have $25.00 + $1.00 = $26.00 and you are now missing $4.00 from the initial $30.00.

"Imagination is more important than Knowledge" -- Albert Einstien

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by Mac</i>
<br />north,

You cheated. HeHeHe.[] You are on the right track but remembr they physically got back $1.00 and they each initially paid $10.00, so they actually paid $9.00 each.

"Imagination is more important than Knowledge" -- Albert Einstien
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">

This riddle is almost as old as I am. The solution is that it is incorrect to sum the amount that the renters paid (3x$9) to the $2 that the bellhop received. The renters paid 3 x $9 = $27. The hotel received $25 and the bellhop $2 which equals $27. So as you can see, the total amount paid = the total amount received. There is no missing $1.


JR

mac

no,if i at first i divide the $25.00 betwwen them they get $8.33 back,add $1.00 that each would get, thats $9.33 each, which is $27.99 in total,then add the $2.00 from the bell hop is $29.99. the $0.01 i am sure they won't mind one of them getting,while the rest don't!! you forgot to divide first which is what would happen in reality.wheres the cheating.whats $8.33x3=$24.99+$1.00x3=$28.99+$2.00=$29.99

jrich

like yours better!!