IF you think your good at math can you answer this question???

Question

ok so i do not the answer to this so far everyone i have asked didnt know the answer either.

3 guys went to rent a hotel room and it was 30 dollars. each gave 10 dollars in. later the manager figured out that the room they were in was only 25 dollars so he sent a kid to give the men their money. the kid kept 2 dollars and gave each man 1 dollars back.

ok so if i lost you 10x3=30 but they each got a dollar back so they each gave 9 dollars. 9x3= 27 + the 2 dollars the kid took = 29 where is the other dollar to make it 30 dollars

Answer 1

This is so old...

The three guys paid $30, then got 3$ back, so they paid $27.

The manager has $25, the kid has $2.

The sum of what the guys paid and what the kid kept is meaningless; the numbers are contrived to make it 29 to confuse people.

Answer 2

Explaining this is kinda tricky, so I found an answer that a mathematician gave to better explain it:

Write out a table:

Deskman Bellboy Men
----------------------------
$0 $0 $30 <-- men have not yet paid for room
$30 $0 $0 <-- men pay deskman
$25 $5 $0 <-- deskman pays bellboy
$25 $2 $3 <-- bellboy stiffs men
----------------------------
$25 $2 -$27 <-- what each group of people has
after all the transactions


Here, the last row is simply the difference between row 4 and row 1. In all but the last row, the sum of the dollar values along each row is constant and equal to $30. In the last row, the apparent fallacy is that the men and the bellboy should have 30 dollars between them, but this statement is false, as it obviously ignores the question of what the deskman has. In fact, the correct statement about the last row is that the sum of what the deskman and the bellboy have must equal the debt of the three men.
The men have collectively paid 27 dollars for the room, which is obvious, since the bellboy took $2 and the actual cost was $25. And so we see that there is no missing dollar, because the $27 the men paid is a debt, written as a negative number, and the $2 the bellboy took is a profit, which is a positive number, and the sum is not $29, but a debt of $25, which was paid to the deskman.

To exaggerate the example, suppose the cost of the room is $5, the bellboy taking $22, the men getting $3. Then it becomes clear that the $27 that the men wind up paying for the room "plus" the $22 the bellboy takes just doesn't equal anything meaningful. What's going on is that $22 of the $27 that the men pay has wound up in the bellboy's pocket, so adding $22 to $27 is in essence counting the bellboy's money twice.

Answer 3

It's a trick question. You have to think of it a different. You don't ADD the 2 dollars the kid kept, you take it away, because that 2 dollars doesn't go into how much they paid. So it's 27 - 2 = 25.

25 they actually paid + 2 the kid kept + 3 they got back = 30.

Answer 4

Let's handle this the way an accountant would, sort of debit/credit.

The men gave the hotel 30 dollars, so

Men = -30
Hotel = +30

Total = 0

The Hotel gave the kid 5 dollars, so

Men = -30
Hotel = + 25
Kid = +5

Total = 0

The kid gave the men 3 dollars and kept 2 dollars, so

Men = -27
Hotel +25
Kid = +2

Total = 0

What's the problem? You're adding apples and oranges. You're adding what the men spent (a negative 27), to what the kid kept (a positive 2) to give you 29, but that's not correct. Minus 27 plus 2 = minus 25, which is exactly what the hotel got (plus 25)

Answer 5

This is wrong the total was 25 and the kid took 2 which equals 27 they where each refunded 1 so it does total 30
so the guys technically will assume they paid a total of 27 dollars not knowing they were ripped off by 2.
The refund was $5

Answer 6

You don't add 2 to 27 trying to reach 30, you'd subtract 2 from 27 to reach the 25 they should have paid.

Answer 7

"The men initially paid $10 ea; $30.

The refund was $5.00, which was split $2 to the bellhop, $1 ea to the 3 men; $5.00.

The hotel got $25, the bellhop got $2, each of the 3 men got back $1 apiece (making the cost of the room $9.00 ea - $27.00); the original $30.00 is accounted for."

Answer 8

The room was $30/3=$10 per person, now the room is $25/3=$8.33 per person.

The real question is why is the boy stealing, and why are 3 men sharing a room.

Answer 9

This is a trick question, we had it in Creative Thinking. There is no answer.