Three poor farmers visit the big city for the first time. In the town, they visit a cheap hotel. The hotel owner is farmer-friendly: he has a room for 3 persons which costs only 30 dollars.

So, the farmers agree to pay $10 each. They pay and go to their room.

But then, the hotel owner realises that he has forgotten his super discount. The farmers only had to pay $25. So, he calls the bell-boy and tells him to give the farmers their $5 back.

But the bell-boy thinks: "You can't split 5 by 3 well. If I give them their $5, they'll probably have a fight." So he keeps $2 for himself and gives the other $3 to the farmers.

Now, the farmers each paid $9, that's $27 in total, and the bell boy kept $2. But together, that's $29!

What happened to the missing dollar?

We will make a money chart to see what really happened.
The farmers are denoted as F1,F2,and F3,the manager M,and the bellboy B.
Those variables will be used to denote their money.
First,F1=10,F2=10,F3=10,M=0,and B=0.
Second,F1=0,F2=0,F3=0,M=30,and B=0.
Third,F1=0,F2=0,F3=0,M=25,and B=5.
Fourth,F1=1,F2=1,F3=1,M=25,and B=2.
This is the supposed 29 dollars mentioned.
1+1+1+25+2=2+1+25+2=3+25+2=28+2=30.
It ended up being thirty dollars,and the missing dollar is found.

Posted by Tim Axoy on 2003-03-25 11:26:39