Simple Maths Problem..

Someone posted this to me today and I was wondering if anyone could give me a simple answer and explanation as to what is wrong with the maths logic here... Here it is...

Three men went to a hotel to rent a room, the cost of the room was $30. Each man paid $10 to the bellboy and proceeded to their room. After a little while the bellboy realized that there was a special on rooms that night and the price for the men's room should have been $25. On his way to the men's room to give them back $5, he was puzzled how he was going to split $5 as he had no change. He decided he would give them each $1 and keep the remaining $2 for himself. So each man originally paid $10, but after the bellboy gave each man $1 back, each man paid $9.

9 x 3 = $27 plus the $2 the bellboy put in his pocket equals $29. The original price for the room was $30. Where did the last dollar go?

reply to post by purplemer


are you in the middle of your final and asking us this? dont let the teacher catch you on ATS

reply to post by Tlexlapoca


Heck no im not.. someone posted it to me for fun and I cannot figure it...

reply to post by purplemer
The lady from Housekeeping took it. Also discovered missing was a cell phone charger, a Kodak Easy Share camera, one black sock and a can of Axe body spray!

reply to post by purplemer


I suck at math. But shouldn't it be +30 dollars being paid in towards the room, then -3 for the refund (a dollar each to the three men) and another subtraction of 2 (-2) for the tip?

= 25 dollars for the room?

Very interesting word problem and I hope I didn't just make a jackass of myself trying to figure it out.

There is no missing dollar the bellboy pocketed 2 bucks out of the 5 he was suppose to return to the men, instead giving them 3 bucks one dollar each, out of the 5. there original 25 sits in the register, 25+5=30, there is no missing dollar.

imo, distraction, it is $25+$3+$2, voila $30

subtract from 30, not add to 25. The starting point and the ending point are switched the way the question is worded.

9 x 3 = 27

THEN

27 - 2 = 25

Yeah it's a trick question.
Ignore the superfluous text.

25+3+2=30

The bellboy is one of the men who rented the room.

Or it's a glitch in the Matrix.

Originally posted by Magister
glitch in the Matrix.

I knew it!

You shouldn't try to add the $2 the bellboy has to get to 30, you subtract it to get to $25.

The men should have paid $25 for the room, but instead they paid $27. The remaining $2 dollars needs to be subtracted from that $27 to get back to the $25.