work this one out

[tazman]

3 men went to an hotel was charged £30 for a room,so they all paid £10 each,and went to there room, meanwhile the manager realised he had overcharged them and that it should have been £25 for the room, so he gave the porter £5 to go and refund them, but the porter could'nt work out how to split the £5 between the 3 men, so he decided to give the men £1 each back and keep £2 for himself, thus if the men paid £30 and was given £1each back, that means they all paid £9 each =£27, £2 the porter pocketed = £29,what happened to the other pound?

[GSDOWNER]

There is no other pound !!!!

They paid £30 for the room, but got a Five pound refund which the Porter kept £2.00 and the three men each got £1 back

[tazman]

noooo firstly they paid £10 each for the room, then they each got a pound back, so they paid £9 each, which is 27, then 2 the porter pocketed adds up to £29

[LOVEGSD]

I am totally lost!!!!!!

[GSDOWNER]

Each man pays £10 for the hotel room, so The hotel gets £30, and the porter has nothing. Now, when everything has settled,

each man has paid £9 for the hotel room (a total of £27), the hotel got £25, and the bellboy got £2. So what went wrong?

Actually, this is not a math problem at all, but a mathematical example of the classical magical principle of misdirection. The problem glibly states "which is a total of £27.00; plus the £2.00 the porter pocketed", which is a meaningless calculation, but serves to distract you from the correct calculation.



The correct calculation would be "which is a total of £27.00; including the £2.00 the porter pocketed". This way you can see that the difference is £25, the price of the room. The misdirection works because the answer it provides is close to something you expect (the original £30).

[LOVEGSD]

Ah ha I see....clever!!!

[tazman]

good god joanne did you have two weetabix this morning,........I am quite sure that that ged had something to do with that answer or Adam

[GSDOWNER]

Ok another look into the answer *puts on maths hat*

If we wanted to get more complicated, the men spent £30 on the room, which the hotel received. The hotel then spent £5 on the refund, of which the porter received £2 and the men received £3. Then the total spent is £35 (£30 by the men and £5 by the hotel), and the total received is £35 (£30 by the hotel, £2 by the porter, and £3 by the men as a refund).



or lol

What happens if we assume the porter was completely dishonest, and decided to keep the £5? Then the question would have been:

"each man nothing, that means they still paid £10.00 each for the room, which is a total of £30.00; plus the £5.00 the porter pocketed is a total of £35.00. But they only gave the desk clerk £30.00! Where did the extra £5.00 come from??"

This is either a mathematical proof that crime really does pay, or, more likely, a very suspect statement. That's why the numbers in the original were chosen to make it look like it almost worked. That way you go along with the misdirection, get misled by the wrong calculation, and are confused by the result.

lol

Of course, what actually happened was that each man paid £10 for the room, for a total of £30.00, of which the hotel got £25 and the porter got £5.

[zaclucy]

More like google

x

[GSDOWNER]

Originally Posted by zaclucy

More like google

x

Jeeves actually