I bet you cant work this out

You see a shirt for £97, but you don't have the money, so you borrow £50 off your mum and £50 off your dad. £50 + £50 = £100 right? You buy the shirt and have £3 change, you give £1 to your mum, £1 to your dad and keep £1 to yourself. Now you owe them both £49
£49 + £49 = £98 + YOUR £1 = £99. Where's the other pound gone?

into your pocket

I bet it won't be long till this is moved

Taxes!!

Hmm, I think you might have broken math as we know it.

There is no other pound.

You're trying to add money owed and money owned, that doesn't work. It isn't a viable problem.

It's a trick question.

Wow, I have never seen that one. I will be interested to find out the trick. I believe it is all to do with the £1 kept

reply to post by SupersonicSerpent


A 98 pound shirt ...paid by Mum and Dad
...wow you are a lucky one .

The question should be why are you borrowing 100 quid off your parents for a shirt?

Don't you work?

They should charge you interest or make you make them breakfast for a year as a condition of giving you so much money for a shirt.
Are you on TV or something?

Taxes on the shirt. That has got to be the only answer. Suprised you had any money left to give back or keep.

reply to post by SupersonicSerpent


I had three dollars, and owed $100 (sorry, don't have the pound sign, so have to use $). Now I have $1, and owe $98. I could give that $1 to either parent, and then only owe $97. Which is what the shirt cost. The problem with your original statement is ... crap, I'm confusing myself - I never "owned" that extra dollar, because it was borrowed. So rather that having $49 + $49 + 1, it should be $49 + $49 - $1, which means I am left owing $97 for a $97 dollar shirt.

Jeez, you come up with that, and on a Friday night? I hear my valpolicella calling me.

Originally posted by SupersonicSerpent
You see a shirt for £97, but you don't have the money, so you borrow £50 off your mum and £50 off your dad. £50 + £50 = £100 right? You buy the shirt and have £3 change, you give £1 to your mum, £1 to your dad and keep £1 to yourself. Now you owe them both £49
£49 + £49 = £98 + YOUR £1 = £99. Where's the other pound gone?

Simply put, they are two financial balance sheets. One is for the purchase, One is for the Loan. and other than the fact that the loan permitted you to make your purchase, it had nothing to do with your outstanding loan balance.

reply to post by Glargod


You put it much moar eloquently than I could. Woot!

Originally posted by SupersonicSerpent
You see a shirt for £97, but you don't have the money, so you borrow £50 off your mum and £50 off your dad. £50 + £50 = £100 right? You buy the shirt and have £3 change, you give £1 to your mum, £1 to your dad and keep £1 to yourself. Now you owe them both £49
£49 + £49 = £98 + YOUR £1 = £99. Where's the other pound gone?

Problem's busted, friend. Regardless of you still having a pound, you still owe them 98 pounds, 49 apiece - meaning you need to come up with 97 more, which means the two you already paid out is exactly correct since you're just holding the one back for yourself (for some sick reason...we're forced to presume you're a sick, selfish person living off the kindness of others at this point).

That said - does anyone else think the pound symbol is stupid, and looks like some kind of retarded, anemic E?

You would make a great politician.
Duping the public with fancy word plays on math.

Originally posted by SupersonicSerpent
You see a shirt for £97, but you don't have the money, so you borrow £50 off your mum and £50 off your dad. £50 + £50 = £100 right? You buy the shirt and have £3 change, you give £1 to your mum, £1 to your dad and keep £1 to yourself. Now you owe them both £49
£49 + £49 = £98 + YOUR £1 = £99. Where's the other pound gone?

thats a funny joke ... are you a banker?

fractional reserve borrowing but you only fractionalize in fractional deductive percentages

Originally posted by SupersonicSerpent
You see a shirt for £97, but you don't have the money, so you borrow £50 off your mum and £50 off your dad. £50 + £50 = £100 right? You buy the shirt and have £3 change, you give £1 to your mum, £1 to your dad and keep £1 to yourself. Now you owe them both £49
£49 + £49 = £98 + YOUR £1 = £99. Where's the other pound gone?

I have seen this before.

I know the answer.

It's more of a semantic trick.

The equation you provided at the end does not match with the verbal description you gave; Even through it seems like it. Here is why.

You borrow and you have 100 Dollars, than get 3 dollars in change. Keep 1, give 1 mom, give 1 dad.

For the equation, you must substract 3 from the 100. In your equation, your adding 3 instead of subtracting.

To put it correctly, the correct equation is

£49 + £49 = £98 MINUS YOUR £1 = £97 (cost of the shirt)

Edit: Doesn't the originally of this version involve three people going to a hotel and getting a room (not joking)?

I don't know ,what's the solution ? All the egg heads on this site,one should know the answer.

reply to post by bdb818888


We've said already, it's a faulty equation. There IS no answer.

This is old, the OP didnt make it up, he copy pasted it from a website....type "£100 shirt £49 a piece wheres the other pound" into google I saw this at least 15 years ago.

reply to post by loves a conspiricy



O0

I think the other posters have gotten it. The initial deal with the shirt is simply fluff to confuse the issue.

The bottom line is, you borrowed 100. You paid them back 2. You still owe them 98. You paid 97 for the shirt, and kept one for yourself. That makes 98, just what you owe.