This is a math riddle....unsolvable.?

Question

There are 3 brothers on a trip together. They go into a hotel and the guy at the desk says the room will be 30 dollars. They each pay 10 and then go up to their room.

A few minutes later the guy at the front desk realizes he charged the guys too much money and he gives the bell hop 5 dollars and tells him to give it back to the 3 brothers.

On the way up to the room, the bell hop can't figure out how he will divide the 5 dollars between 3 brothers, so he pockets 2 dollars and gives them each back 1.

So they each paid 9 dollars, then, right? That's 27 dollars (9x3=27). And the bell hop kept 2...that's 29 dollars (27+2=29), but oringinally they paid 30....what happened to the extra dollar?

Answer 1

The way the question is asked is what causes the confusion. robtheman was the first to read through the confusion. Thumbs up to him, and thumbs up to you for giving a good thinking question.

Answer 2

Okay. This is just a trick question. Think of it this way: They each paid ten dollars (10 + 10 + 10 = 30 dollars paid to the management). Then they were given back one dollar each (10 -1) + (10 -1) + (10-1) =27 dollars paid to the management. The bellhop pockets 2 dollars, which brings down the money paid to the price requested, 25 dollars. In other words, the original question first subtracts 3 dollars from 30, then adds back on 2 dollars. Of course that won't add up to 30! You subtract ALL of them.

Answer 3

So you have $30 originally. Then the guys takes $5 out of the register.

$30-$5 = $25

The bellhop pockets 2.

$25 + $2 = $27.

The brothers get $1 a piece.

$27 + $1 + $1 + $1 = $30

There is no missing dollar.

Answer 4

Just put in this way: 10*3 =30 30-5=25 5-2=3 3/3=1........

check 1*3=3 3+2=5 5+25=30......(original amount)

There is no missing dollar at all......

Answer 5

Really, the bell hop's pocketed two dollars has nothing to deal with adding it to 27 when in actuality the guys had to pay 25$

Answer 6

Robtheman is right: There is no missing dollar. This "riddle" is used to show how there can be 2 different answers to a problem using the same numbers. A basic example of one of the theories of finite math.

Answer 7

theay each paid $9.33 because the bellhop was given $5 so theay paid $25 for the room and got $ 3 back so 28 devided by 3 is 9.33 plus the two the bellhop stole 2

Answer 8

they actually paid 8.33 each. for the 25.00 the bell hop kept 2.00 and gave 3.00 back. this raises it to 9.33 each. and the .01 is hidden but since there wasnt any change given the bell hop had to have kept 3.00 and gave them 2.00 back. the bell hop is a thief.....

Answer 9

robtheman got the answer perfectly fine.
Actually this is a very old joke. The answer to it is as robtheman said it. Your way of calculating it is funny but it is wrong. If you don't already know, you should know, that this is a joke not a riddle.
Hopefully you will pick him .

Answer 10

they paid a dollar for the room