Can someone figure this math problem out?

[snidy1]

I heard this when I was a kid and came across it again.
Three people go to a hotel together, it cost $30 for a room, they each pay $10. Later on the clerk tells the bellboy that there's a sale and it's only $25, so the clerk gives the bellboy $5 to bring up to the room, since he can't split it up three ways he decides to keep $2 and give back $3. So each person ends up paying $9, which equals $27. What happened to the other doller?

 

[gopunk]

well 27 is correct... there is no "other" dollar, since that's how much the hotel + bellboy gets...

this is more like a wording problem.... the trick is that 27 and 28 are similar or something like that. because 27 is the total amount paid by the men, whereas 28 is the amount not taken by the bellhop... which aren't necessarily the same number.

hotel gets 25
men get 3
bellhop gets 2
total is 30

hotel + bellhop get 27
men get 3
total is 30

bellhop gets 2
bellhop does not get 28
total is 30

 

[sharkeeper]

KEEP THE CHANGE you filthy animal! 😛

-DAK-

 

[dighn]

what other dollar??!

they pay 30. get 3 back, 2 goes to the bellboy, 25 to the hotel. adds to 30

 

[Noirish]

Originally posted by: snidy1
I heard this when I was a kid and came across it again.
Three people go to a hotel together, it cost $30 for a room, they each pay $10. Later on the clerk tells the bellboy that there's a sale and it's only $25, so the clerk gives the bellboy $5 to bring up to the room, since he can't split it up three ways he decides to keep $2 and give back $3. So each person ends up paying $9, which equals $27. What happened to the other doller?

What's to confuse over?

They pay $27 which is $25 room + $2 tip.

 

[biffbacon]

i see what he is saying though:
if each person paid 9$
and the bellboy has 2$
then 9x3 is 27$ + 2$ = 29

 

[hdeck]

repost.

 

[igowerf]

They pay $30. And they get $3 back leaving $27. The bellboy takes $2, leaving $25, which is the sale price.
Basically, it's like they paid $27 in the beginning and the bellboy stole $2.

 

[gopunk]

Originally posted by: biffbacon
i see what he is saying though:
if each person paid 9$
and the bellboy has 2$
then 9x3 is 27$ + 2$ = 29

but why would you add 2.... that 2 is already included in the 3x9

3x9 is the amount of money given to the hotel + bellhop. it makes no sense to have hotel + 2 x bellhop

 

[Special K]

The wording of this problem confused me the very first time I saw it, but when I made a list of how much money (of the original $30) each person had in their possession after each transaction, it made sense and you can see that there is no "missing" dollar.

 

[txxxx]

Hehe this took me 1 minute in a cinema to work out 🙂