BS: Puzzle: Where is the other dollar?

Subject: Puzzle: Where is the other dollar?
From: Ebbie
Date: 06 Dec 00 - 06:59 PM

This is an old puzzle but for the life of me I can't remember the answer or the reasoning. And now I need the answer for inclusion in a project. So, Mudcatters, can you help?

Three men go into a motel. The man behind the desk says the room is $30, so each man pays $10 and goes to the room.

A while later the man behind the desk realizes the room is only $25, so he sends the bellboy to the 3 guys' room with $5. On the way the bellboy can't figure out how to split $5 evenly between three men, so he gives each man $1 and keeps the other $2 for himself.

This means that the 3 men each paid $9 for the room, which is a total of $27, plus the $2 that the bellboy kept = $29. Where is the other dollar?

Thanks in advance!

Ebbie

Subject: RE: BS: Puzzle: Where is the other dollar?
From: MMario
Date: 06 Dec 00 - 07:03 PM

the room cost twenty-five dollars. Each man gets a dollar back = 25+3=28. Busboy keeps two dollars (the little thief!) 28+2=30. The question as asked is misleading.

Subject: RE: BS: Puzzle: Where is the other dollar?
From: Banjer
Date: 06 Dec 00 - 07:06 PM

Mario is correct. That is what I always heard, that it's in the way the question or problem is presented.

Subject: RE: BS: Puzzle: Where is the other dollar?
From: sophocleese
Date: 06 Dec 00 - 07:07 PM

You shouldn't add what the bellboy kept to the $27 dollars, you need to subtract it from the $27. 27 minus 2 equals 25, the price of the room.

Subject: RE: BS: Puzzle: Where is the other dollar?
From: MMario
Date: 06 Dec 00 - 07:10 PM

sophocleese

have you noticed you and I together managed omce again to produce a complete answer? *this is happening far too often. Do you have my brain cell?*

Subject: RE: BS: Puzzle: Where is the other dollar?
From: sophocleese
Date: 06 Dec 00 - 07:13 PM

I'm not telling... do I?

Subject: RE: BS: Puzzle: Where is the other dollar?
From: Sorcha
Date: 06 Dec 00 - 07:15 PM

I HATE these kinds of things, always have. Can never solve them. I wish I could find the person who has my brain cell(s?)...........

Subject: RE: BS: Puzzle: Where is the other dollar?
From: Ebbie
Date: 06 Dec 00 - 07:27 PM

I'm so impressed- actually I expected no less. But the speed! Do we all hang around the computers all day long?

Y'all have saved my hide once again. Now copy and paste and away I go...

Much thanks. Ebbie

Subject: RE: BS: Puzzle: Where is the other dollar?
From: GUEST,Lyle
Date: 06 Dec 00 - 08:17 PM

You violate the principle of Order Of Operations, AKA Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally (PEMDAS). That is, solve parenthetic expressions first, then exponents, then multiplication/division, then add/subtract.

Lyle

Subject: RE: BS: Puzzle: Where is the other dollar?
From: Sorcha
Date: 06 Dec 00 - 09:19 PM

Lyle--HUH??????? Damme, it's algegra again! *BG*

Subject: RE: BS: Puzzle: Where is the other dollar?
From: Gary T
Date: 07 Dec 00 - 12:15 AM

The above answers are correct. The following phrasing may make it clearer to some (it did for me, anyhow).

The problem is right here: the 3 men each paid $9 for the room. No they didn't. Each man paid $9 for the room (25) plus the bellboy's "tip" (2)--3x9=27=25+2. The other $3 of the original $30 are back in the men's pockets, each having $1.

Subject: RE: BS: Puzzle: Where is the other dollar?
From: Ebbie
Date: 07 Dec 00 - 12:28 AM

Lyle. Right.

Ebbie