Star-struck Posted July 24, 2003 Posted July 24, 2003 On the following: three men enter a hotel and ask a clerk for a room for the night the clerk tells them that the cost for the room is $30.00. each of the three pays $10.00 (totalling $30.00). the manager later sees the guest book and realizes that he know these men and decides to give them a discount. he tells the clerk to refund the guys a total of $5.00. the clerk takes out $5.00 and thinks to himself, how do i divide $5.00 between three people? ultimately, he decides to give the guys $1.00 each ($3.00 total) and keep $2.00 (totalling to $5.00 as the manager requested). where the problem occurs is when you try to add it all together and you try to muliply and blah blah blah. if each paid $10.00 (totalling $30.00) and was refunded $1.00, you would get $27.00 (10x3=30. 10-1=9. 9x3=27) you then add that to the $2.00 that the clerk kept for himself to try to didvide things evenly (27+2=29). where did the last dollar go to? You did 30-3+2=29 when you should have done 30-3-2=25. This is simply one of those brain-teaser questions.
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