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Topic: 3 Men and a Hotel Room (Read 6417 times) |
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macdaddy
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3 Men and a Hotel Room
« on: Jun 5th, 2006, 7:27pm » |
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i can pretty much get any riddle with time but after an hour i still cant get this someone please explain it.
Three men go to a cheap motel, and the desk clerk charges them a sum of $30.00 for the night. The three of them split the cost ten dollars each. Later the manager comes over and tells the desk clerk that he overcharged the men, since the actual cost should have been $25.00. The manager gives the bellboy $5.00 and tells him to give it to the men. The bellboy, however, decides to cheat the men and pockets $2.00, giving each of the men only one dollar.
Now each man has paid $9.00 to stay for the night, and 3 x $9.00 = $27.00. The bellboy has pocketed $2.00. But $27.00 + $2.00 = $29.00. Where is the missing $1.00? WTF?
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| « Last Edit: Jun 6th, 2006, 3:25pm by Icarus » |
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Weazel
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Re: HELP! hotel stay
« Reply #1 on: Jun 5th, 2006, 7:46pm » |
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The two dollars is included in the $27. It should be $27 - $2 + $5 = $30.
Also, you can search the forums for the answers, and this riddle should be in the easy section.
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Icarus
wu::riddles Moderator
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Re: HELP! hotel stay
« Reply #2 on: Jun 6th, 2006, 3:24pm » |
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While I agree that this riddle deserves to be in the easy section (there is no deep truth behind it - it just misleads the reader), William placed it in the Hard section on the Riddles page, so here is the appropriate forum for it. You will find several earlier threads for it though, if you look.
As Weazel has said, the two dollars the bellboy took came from the $27 the men paid, so it should not be added to that $27 again. The correct accounting is:
$25 (hotel) + $2 (bellboy) + $3 (men) = $30.
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I wonder: Which is larger
When their digits are reversed? " - Anonymous
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checker
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Re: HELP! hotel stay
« Reply #3 on: Nov 26th, 2006, 11:05pm » |
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on Jun 6th, 2006, 3:24pm, Icarus wrote: the two dollars the bellboy took came from the $27 the men paid, so it should not be added to that $27 again. The correct accounting is:
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could you please explain this more properly!
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rmsgrey
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Re: 3 Men and a Hotel Room
« Reply #4 on: Nov 27th, 2006, 5:58am » |
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Of the $30 originally put into the till, look at where each dollar ends up. $25 stays in the till, $2 goes to the bellboy, and $3 to the customers ($1 each)
A more accurate way to phrase it would be "Each man has paid $9 to stay for the night (3 * $9 = $27). The bellboy has pocketed $2 and $27 - $2 = $25 which is what's left in the motel coffers."
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| « Last Edit: Nov 27th, 2006, 5:58am by rmsgrey » |
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jollytall
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Re: 3 Men and a Hotel Room
« Reply #5 on: Nov 27th, 2006, 12:52pm » |
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But solve this:
There were about 25 threads on this topic. Now we opened one more. That should be 26. Then everybody recognises that probably even 25 was at least 24 more than should be. Still we keep two threads active in the hard and medium sections.
So the question: Why don't we open a 27th in the easy section and keep all the three on the top of the lists. That would make 30 (27 in total + the 3 active).
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Sameer
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Re: 3 Men and a Hotel Room
« Reply #6 on: Nov 27th, 2006, 1:25pm » |
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Wow, i can't put these feelings in words.. we are discussing same problem in two different threads active at the same time but different currencies  . Btw, jollytall's and my posts are two similar posts, where did the third similar post go? 
http://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~wwu/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi?board=riddles_med ium;action=display;num=1164608432
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| « Last Edit: Nov 27th, 2006, 1:27pm by Sameer » |
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Icarus
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Re: HELP! hotel stay
« Reply #7 on: Nov 27th, 2006, 4:49pm » |
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on Nov 26th, 2006, 11:05pm, checker wrote:| could you please explain this more properly! |
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I don't know how I could possibly explain it more clearly! The incorrect accounting adds the bellboy's $2 to the $27 that the men paid to get $29. But in fact, those $2 were two of the 27 dollars. Adding them to the 27 dollars is counting them twice (while ignoring the returned $3, which is why it comes short of $30).
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"Pi goes on and on and on ...
And e is just as cursed.
I wonder: Which is larger
When their digits are reversed? " - Anonymous
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BNC
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Re: 3 Men and a Hotel Room
« Reply #8 on: Nov 28th, 2006, 3:11am » |
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Maybe these variants will help:
1) The manager tells the bellboys to return the whole $30, as these are his guests. The bellboy pockets all $30, returning nothing.
Now, they paid 3X10=$30. The bellboy has $30. But 30+30=60, not 30... where did the extra $30 come from?
2) same as before, but the bellboy is honest, and returns the money.
They paid 3X0=$0, + $0 at the belboys = $). Now there are $30 missing!!!!
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How about supercalifragilisticexpialidociouspuzzler [Towr, 2007]
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Icarus
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Re: 3 Men and a Hotel Room
« Reply #9 on: Nov 28th, 2006, 4:42pm » |
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Lets try this: each . is a dollar:
(1) Men give the money to the bellboy:
man 1 | man 2 | man 3
..............................
(2) Bellboy gives $25 dollars to the manager, keeps $5
Manager Bellboy
..............................
(3) Bellboy gives $3 back to men
Manager Bellboy Men
..............................
|<--------- 27 ---------->|
(4) the accounting that comes up with $29:
.............................
|<--------- 27 ---------->|
Note that $29 is reached by adding the bellboy's $2 to the $27 dollars, even though they are already accounted in those $27. This is why there are 4 blue points in the last row, even though the bellboy only gets $2.
Does it make sense now?
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| « Last Edit: Nov 28th, 2006, 4:45pm by Icarus » |
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"Pi goes on and on and on ...
And e is just as cursed.
I wonder: Which is larger
When their digits are reversed? " - Anonymous
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