I know a lot have probably heard of this, but let's just give it a shot
3 men go into a motel. The man behind the desk said the room is US$30, so each man paid US$10 and went to their room.
A while later the man behind the desk realized the room was only US$25, because there was a special that night, so he sent the bellboy to the 3 guys' room with US$5. On the way, the bellboy couldn't figure out how to split US$5 evenly between 3 men, so he desides to give each man US$1 and kept the other US$2 for himself.
This meant that the 3 men each paid US$9 for the room, which is a total of US$27. Add the US$2 that the bellboy kept brings the total to US$29.
#4. "RE: Riddle of riddles?" In response to dbahn (Reply # 1) Wed Oct-16-02 12:32 AM
This seems to be the one that makes the most sense though ChrisP's answer was something else I saw.
Napolean, the problem with that is that, it doesn't answer the riddle, where did the $1 go? That is right though!
My explanation is that the room actually cost $27 ($25 for the room + $2 from the clerk), which does equal 9 for each of the guys. What is wrong however, is adding +2, because that's already included in the $27. Now all you have to do is add $3, since they all got $3 back.
Actually Chris just divided 25 by 3. So I guess my way is the shortcut, easier way to explain it. Yours seem more accurate
The men did not pay $9 each for the room -- they paid $9 each for the room and the skim that the bellboy took. The room cost per man, after being adjusted to $25 total, was $8.33 each. The men each kicked $0.67 into the bellboy's $2 skim, and they each got back $1.
The real question is more about the extra penny...
This is why I flunked out of trig twice. And why my Verbal score on the SAT was twice as high as my math score...wait, thats not mathematically possible... dammit!
Man, I hate those #'s!! I tried and tried at algebra in high school, the teacher helped, but I just couldn't *get it*. Does that make a person stupid?
I have quite a few of my *own*, thought up illusions. No one else knows the secrets. Does that make a person intelligent?
One reason I love my magic is that I get to use math, science, architecture, computer science, mind manipulation, hypnosis and all the things that I want to do for work. It's like all the things I love to do in one.
In Chinese, they use the word 'clever' for cleverness and intelligence. I think that's very interesting. Sorry to get off this topic (a little).
Gravity....not just a good idea, it's the law! My Magic