I need answers am boggled please??? Can anyone figure this out?

Question

3 men went to stay at a motel, the stay in total was $30. They each put in $10. The manager then decided that b/c it was 4 a.m. when they checked in, he would take $5 off the price. He sent his clerk to give them back $5. The clerk said to himself, "they cant split $5 evenly so, I cam going to give them $3 and keep $2 for myself. So if the 3 men each got back a dollar. Thay all spent $27. But if the clerk kept the $2 that would make it $29. Where is the other dollar??? I know 3+2+5. But when you look at the total of what they sepnt and what the clerk kept. Its doesn't make sense. There is an answer, I just cant figure it out. Does anyone know???

Answer 1

They each spent $9, for a total of $27. Of that $27, $25 went to the hotel owner and $2 went to the clerk (who stole it).

Answer 2

The front desk got 25$ but the men spent $27 so they overpaid by $2 because the clerk kept it for himself. it's like this 25=30-5 and the five was split into 3 and 2 so we get 25=30-(3+2) the way the problem is worded they just drop the parenthesis without distributing the negative and they end up with 25=30-3+2 which is wrong.

Answer 3

There is no missing dollar, the logic is wrong. Hear me out, they each spent 30, then the manager gave back 5, making it 25, the 5 dollars were 3 and 2, add 3 to 25 you get 28, then add the 2 to get 30.

Answer 4

tricky tricky, i think i have an answer though. They all spent 28 dollars. not 27. Now you say wait a minute 30 - 3 is 27 not 28. However count the numbers. 28, 29, 30 that is 3 numbers if you counted from 27 it would be 4 and we only gave back 3 not four, so hopefully that helps.

Answer 5

Just remember that there are now only $25, not $30, and $27 - $2 is $25, so all is OK.

Answer 6

It's an English problem as well as math. By saying "they all", it means between them. They EACH spent $9. 3x9=27. Problem solved.