A TV is sold for £30.00 to a family of three. Each person puts £10 in for the purhcase.
The shopkeeper then realises that he has made a mistake, and asks an assistant to give the family £5.00 back, as the actual cost of the TV was £25.00.
The assistant decides to keep £2.00 and just give the family back £3.00.
Everyone in the family has now paid £9.00.
But, 3X£9 = £27.00
The assistant has retained £2.00
So the total paid is £29.00
Where did the other £1 go?
2007-03-28 01:44:28 · 12 answers · asked by Anonymous in Science & Mathematics ➔ Mathematics
because they have paid £8.33 each not £9..the TV was only £25 so how could they overpay !
2007-03-28 01:49:49 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
This one is an old favourite that still gets people scratching their heads!
The muddle creeps in here because you end up counting the same money more than once, and not counting other money!
At the end of the transaction, the total amount of cash in the "system" (25 + 2 + 1 + 1 + 1) still adds up to thirty, so there is no missing pound. In other words, all the different chunks of money add up to the original total of thirty pounds.
The fallacious missing pound creeps in when you start adding up the same money more than once.
In the story, it says that each person paid 9 pounds each for the tv, costing them 27 pounds in total. Together with the 2 pounds that the assistant has kept that makes a total of 29 pounds.
However, the two pounds that the employer has kept is part of the 27 pounds the employees have paid - it is not different money, so it can't be added to the employees' 27 pounds. You're counting it twice.
2007-03-28 08:49:43 · answer #2 · answered by Robin the Electrocuted 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
The TV cost $30. Each person put $10 in for purchase
Which make it all together $30
but the shopkeeper realize he has make a mistake, and ask the assistant to give the family back $5.00.
The assistance decides to keep $2.00 and just give the them back $3.00, thats make it $1.00 for each family.
So, each family pay $9.00
But due to calculation each family pay more than $9.00 they pay $9.34 or $9.33.
Because if you divide the $1.00 that lost by three you will get 0.33 or 0.34
2007-03-28 10:21:56 · answer #3 · answered by Wonder 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The TV was £25 +£3 back = £28 + £2 he kept = £30.00
2007-03-28 08:48:01 · answer #4 · answered by leedsmikey 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
30 paid
3 received back
so its 27 spent. 2 went to assistant and 25 went to the shopkeeper. no other money is available.
2007-03-28 08:52:16 · answer #5 · answered by tafi75 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
now ere they paid 27 wright, 25 the TV and 2 $ to the dealer. Nothing is wrong way do you ad the two dollars to 27 this is actually the sum paid.If you want to be fare add 3
2007-03-28 08:51:00 · answer #6 · answered by aristidetraian 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
if the assistant keeps £2, the total amount paid is £27. You're taking off the £2 twice, which doesn't make it add up.
2007-03-28 08:56:30 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
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2007-04-01 03:31:35 · answer #8 · answered by valivety v 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
actually the trick lies in caculating the cost of tv in the end......
it must be 25(cost of tv) + 3(the amount the shopkeeper returned) + 2(the amount the assiant kept)
thus it makes 30.......
2007-03-28 08:55:16 · answer #9 · answered by Sedash 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The OLD ones keep popping up TIME & TIME after TIME!!!!
Bad Maths!!!
2007-03-28 09:42:30 · answer #10 · answered by Rod Mac 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋