Brain Teaser (1 Viewer)

enoilgam

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I dont know if this is really a maths problem, but my student gave me this question after it was given to him in a 2U class. So here goes:

Three guys rent a hotel room for $30 and they each pay $10. The hotel manager realises that he has overcharged them for the room, as it actually costs $25. So he sends a bellboy up with $5 to compensate them. The bellboy is rather devious and steals $2 whilst giving the men a dollar each. However, by giving the men each a dollar, this means that they have only paid $9 each for a total of $27. As the bell boy stole $2, this leaves a total of $29 which can be accounted for - what happened to the remaining dollar?
 

SpiralFlex

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Missing dollar riddle :) I think it has been posted back years ago on the site but it's quite common.
 

iBibah

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I dont know if this is really a maths problem, but my student gave me this question after it was given to him in a 2U class. So here goes:

Three guys rent a hotel room for $30 and they each pay $10. The hotel manager realises that he has overcharged them for the room, as it actually costs $25. So he sends a bellboy up with $5 to compensate them. The bellboy is rather devious and steals $2 whilst giving the men a dollar each. However, by giving the men each a dollar, this means that they have only paid $9 each for a total of $27. As the bell boy stole $2, this leaves a total of $29 which can be accounted for - what happened to the remaining dollar?
how come you added $2 to the 27? shouldnt you subtract it cause its actually a part of it?
 

SpiralFlex

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The trick to the problem is to think about how much the hotel manager and the bellboy have
 

iBibah

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The trick to the problem is to think about how much the hotel manager and the bellboy have
Yeh that's what I mean they payed 9 bucks each which is 27, the hotel has 25 and the kid has 2? So it should've been subtracted not added?
 

Kiraken

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Yeh that's what I mean they payed 9 bucks each which is 27, the hotel has 25 and the kid has 2? So it should've been subtracted not added?
29 refers to the total money of the initial 30 bucks that has been accounted for
 

iBibah

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29 refers to the total money of the initial 30 bucks that has been accounted for
Im saying the trick is in the wording of the question where he added the 2 bucks to the 27. The $2 was already in the 27 so adding it was wrong.

jeez iBibah it's not that hard to understand

(hehehehe)
 

braintic

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Alternatively, the $2 has been added to the wrong total.
The guests have paid $27.
The (hotel+bellboy) have been paid 25+2 = $27
 

obliviousninja

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LOL the resurgence of this missing dollar question

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