The Megaphone : A Debate Blog

The mystery of the vanishing pound

Posted by: Ryan on: March 2, 2007

I wasn’t intending to post today, and never in a million years did I think I would post one of those spammy kind of e-mails. But today I was e-mailed this thing and it is properly annoying.

I think it has something to do with the dividing and taking away… and maybe something to with the .33333 reoccurring thing that 3 times adds up to one. If there is anyone who is not crap at maths could you please explain how this works so I can actually sleep tonight… Where’s (the guilty pleasure) Carol Vorderman when you need her.

Anyway… enough of the jibber jabber… fool

3 men go into a motel. The man behind the desk said the room is £30, so each man paid £10 and went to the room.

A while later the man behind the desk realised the room was only £25, so he sent the bellboy to the 3 guys’ room with £5. On the way the bellboy couldn’t figure out how to split £5 evenly between 3 men, so he gave each man £1 and kept the other £2 for himself.

This meant that the 3 men each paid £9 for the room, which is a total of £27, add the £2 that the bellboy kept = £29.

Where is the other pound?

3 Responses to "The mystery of the vanishing pound"

Curse you for making me think this early in the day. :P

I think the way the thing is worded is the confusing thing, I’m crap at math but there is still a total of £30 there.

Uh, somewhere anyway…

It does still add up to £30

3 blokes each pay £10 = £30
£5 back = £25 between the 3 of them
Bell boy takes £2 = £25 + $2 = £27
£1 back to each man = £3 + £27 = £30

The trick is that technically the three men are actually paying more than £9 each for the room but because of the way the bell boy cheekily knicks £2 it offsets things.

It’s tricky to explain but it does work out!

I did actually google this cause it was really annoying me.

Guy: you are obviously far superior to me in the maths department.

Where it says the men paid £27 or the room is a lie… they actually paid £27 for the room plus bellboy. so yes with the £3 change it makes £30.

I apologise for being a moron

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The Megaphone is a place where you can voice your opinions, ideas or solutions to the day’s question posted by me. The subject of these questions will range from “serious” political issues to the utterly ridiculous random crap which occasionally floats around my head. Join the debate team. Enjoy the blog or read more about it.

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