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Fearless Leader

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Mar 21, 2006
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Hoosiertown
Three girls go to Florida and stay at a Hotel. The Night manager checks them in and charges them $30 for the room, which they share. The girls split the cost and paid $10 each. When the Day manager comes to the hotel in the morning he realizes that he didn't tell the night manager about the special and rooms only cost $25. The day manager give a bell hop five ones to pay back the girls. He decides to himself I cant give 5 ones to three girls I'll take two so nobody gets left out. Add up the amounts, do you notice something wrong?
 
Three girls go to Florida and stay at a Hotel. The Night manager checks them in and charges them $30 for the room, which they share. The girls split the cost and paid $10 each. When the Day manager comes to the hotel in the morning he realizes that he didn't tell the night manager about the special and rooms only cost $25. The day manager give a bell hop five ones to pay back the girls. He decides to himself I cant give 5 ones to three girls I'll take two so nobody gets left out. Add up the amounts, do you notice something wrong?

28 isn't divisible by 3.

27 is, as is 24.

25/3= 8.333333333333... (nonrational)

Therefore someone will have to be shortchanged by at least .3 cents and no simple matter of pulling out two bucks will make up the difference. See also petty larceny on a documented transaction is just plain stupid.
 
No, everythings fine. You only get something weird if you add up the wrong amounts.

Girls paid $30 - $3 = $27

Hotel Got $30 - $5 = $25
Day Manager got $2
$25+$2 = $27
 
Adding it up, it appears each girl paid $9 and the bellboy got $2 – so that's $29 – so where did the missing Dollar go?

The answer is, it didn't go anywhere.

You don't add the $2 to the $27 the girls paid, because $2 is already included in that $27.

The actual sum is the $27 they paid plus the $3 they got back, which totals up to the original $30.
 
very good jaffa.
edit: I like swiftaw's way explaining it alot. This stumped somebody I knew and I couldn't figure out how to explain it to them. And the person who asked me it could have wrote it alot better.
 
Three girls go to Florida and stay at a Hotel. The Night manager checks them in and charges them $30 for the room, which they share. The girls split the cost and paid $10 each. When the Day manager comes to the hotel in the morning he realizes that he didn't tell the night manager about the special and rooms only cost $25. The day manager give a bell hop five ones to pay back the girls. He decides to himself I cant give 5 ones to three girls I'll take two so nobody gets left out. Add up the amounts, do you notice something wrong?

doesnt he owe them $1.67 each? he seems to just be keeping the change
 
The answer is...

Where the hell in Florida can you find a room for $30/night? Or anywhere for that matter?
 
They pay 30. Only should be 25. So the manager gives 5 back, two to the bell boy and one each to the girl..

That was why I commented on the delivery of the question. It's supposed to go like this:

Three women stay at a hotel and pay $30 for the room. Each pays $10. In the morning, the manager determines that they were overcharged and should have been charged only $25. So she gives a clerk $5 to return to the women. Since the clerk cannot divide $5 three ways evenly, he decides to give each woman $1 and keep $2 himself. So each woman has paid $9, for a total of $27. Adding in the $2 the clerk kept, this still only comes to $29. Where did the other $1 go?

And the trick involved is that it sounds logical, but the $2 from the clerk is being accounted for on the wrong side of the balance sheet -- it's not $27+2 ? 30. It's $27 = $25 (in manager's hand) + $2 (in clerk's hand).
 
This reminds me of the problem about the old man with 39 sheeps and 4 sons which I think has been posted before. :D


EDIT: Oh, how about this easy one?
There's a room with 3 lamps, no windows and a door. Outside the room are 3 unmarked switches which control the 3 lamps. If anyone is to flip the switches, they will not be able to see into the room (and no light can come out of the room). How are you able to tell which switch controls which lamp by just going into the room once and once only.
 
And I grew up in Penzance, which is just the next town over from St Ives.


Confused?


Remember the one about being on your way to St Ives?

While on my way to St. Ives,

I met a man with seven wives.

Each wife had seven sacks;

Each sack had seven cats;

Each cat had seven kits.

Kits, cats, sacks, wives;

How many were going to St. Ives?
 
Just you. St Ives, Penzance and Cornwall (in general) are some of my favorite places in the world. I absolutely love it there. I can hardly wait to get back.
 
There's a room with 3 lamps, no windows and a door. Outside the room are 3 unmarked switches which control the 3 lamps. If anyone is to flip the switches, they will not be able to see into the room (and no light can come out of the room). How are you able to tell which switch controls which lamp by just going into the room once and once only.

Is the acceptable answer still one of the following form: Turn one switch on and wait some time (half hour or whatever). Turn off the first switch, and then turn on another switch. Leave the third switch as is. Now go in. The hot but off bulb matches the first switch; the on bulb the second, and the cold off bulb the third.
 
Is the acceptable answer still one of the following form: Turn one switch on and wait some time (half hour or whatever). Turn off the first switch, and then turn on another switch. Leave the third switch as is. Now go in. The hot but off bulb matches the first switch; the on bulb the second, and the cold off bulb the third.

Yup, easy if one thinks about more than what a light bulb do. :)
 
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