Where did the dollar go?

[NoCage]

This is a quirk of mathematics that I heard several years ago, and don't really have a good explaination for it. Anyone?

Three people traveling together check into a hotel and will share the same room. The clerk charges them $30 total for the night, so each person pays $10. After they check in, the clerk realizes that the room should only be $25. The clerk gives the bell boy $5 to return to the guests. He decides to give each guest $1 (total of $3) and keep the other $2 for himself.

So, if each guest paid $10, and then got $1 back, they each ended up paying $9. 3x9=27... 27+2 (that the bell boy kept) = $29.

Where's the other dollar? I don't know the answer.

 

[tcfjr]

After getting their refund, each patron paid $9, for a total of $27. Of that $27, $2 went to the bellboy, and $25 to the hotel.

 

[yanktar]

This is a quirk of mathematics that I heard several years ago, and don't really have a good explaination for it. Anyone?
Three people traveling together check into a hotel and will share the same room. The clerk charges them $30 total for the night, so each person pays $10. After they check in, the clerk realizes that the room should only be $25. The clerk gives the bell boy $5 to return to the guests. He decides to give each guest $1 (total of $3) and keep the other $2 for himself.

So, if each guest paid $10, and then got $1 back, they each ended up paying $9. 3x9=27... 27+2 (that the bell boy kept) = $29.

Where's the other dollar? I don't know the answer.

Betcha hated word problems in math in school. I sure did. This one caught me for a minute until I realized....

The answer is you don't ADD the $2, you subtract it from the $27 to get $25--the new room rate. The bellboy owes them each another $.667, which would bring it to $8.333 that they each pay. 3 x $8.333 =$24.999=$25.00 But he kept that for his $2 tip.

So you subtract the $2 from the $27 instead of adding it.