Math Puzzle - Case of the Missing Dollar(?) Part 1
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Original Photo by Norsehorse Edited by Brian
There’s a braintwister that’s been going around the internet, well, probably ever since there was an internet. It’s actually probably thousands of years old in one version or another. You may have seen it phrased like this:
Three men go into a motel. The man behind the desk said that the room costs $30. So each man paid $10 and went to the room.
Later, the desk clerk realized that the room was only $25. So he sent the bellboy to the men’s rooms with five one-dollar bills.
The bellboy couldn’t figure out how to split five dollars evenly three ways, so he gave each man one dollar, and kept the other two for himself.
This meant that the three men had each paid $9 for their rooms, which makes a total of $27 dollars. Adding the two dollars that the bellboy kept would make a total of $29 dollars.
So where is the other dollar?
My advice to anyone trying to solve anything like this, or trying to think about anything at all, for that matter, is not to jump to conclusions.
Want to give it a try and add your thoughts in a comment? Go for it! I’m not asking for the solution, just some thoughts about the meaning of the puzzle - how it relates to life, logic, decision-making and understanding your world. I am not putting this up as a trivial puzzle.
My comments will be in the next post.
(Note: When I originally posted this, there were a few typos and other mistakes in it. If you busted your head over it till now, please accept my apologies. It should be correct now.)
