Mystery Solved
Created on: May 9th, 2011
Mystery Solved
I got tired of seeing this damn thing all over the internet, so I made a gif to very easily explain the solution to the puzzle

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May 9th, 2011
(2)
Thank you for posting this
May 9th, 2011
(1)
I love Tetris
May 9th, 2011
(0)
amazing
May 9th, 2011
(0)
You found the answer to this? I hard bin laden was carrying it until the pentagon released it. nice work tbh.
(0)
lol
(0)
Man, lately Umfuld has been claiming that he's been making "the best sites" with some mystery account recently and if it turns out to be you, I'm gonna be so mad. (But I don't think so...too many sites that just aren't his style)
May 9th, 2011
(0)
Flawless victory
May 9th, 2011
(0)
Also I tried to 5 but my phone will not permit it.
May 9th, 2011
(6)
So 1 day, 3 guys enter a hotel, approach the desk, and ask 4 a room. The innkeeper says, That'll be $30, so each of the 3 guys puts in...that's right, $10 each. The bellhop shows them to their room.
Bellhop gets back to the desk to find the innkeeper troubled that he just overcharged the 3 men. Turns out the room is only $25. How this mistake could be made is beyond him.
But anyway the bellhop begins to take the $5 in change back to the 3 guys. Rather than make change, and being unscrupulous, the bellhop decides to keep $2 and give each of the guys...that's right, $1 each.

So the conundrum can be stated this way: Each of the men paid $10 originally and got $1 back. 10-1=9. 9x3 is 27. The bellhop kept $2, and 27 plus 2 is 29. Where did the other dollar go?

(This only counts as a real puzzle around closing time)
May 10th, 2011
(1)
The men didn't "pay" $9 each. They "paid" $28 as a group ($25 plus $3 back). $28/3 is $9.33 which gives you your "other dollar".
May 12th, 2011
(1)
Each guy paid $9 totaling $27. From this $27 the bellhop took 2$ and gave the remaining $25 to the hotel. The 27+2=29 doesn't make any sense. There is no missing dollar.
May 15th, 2011
(0)
I was convinced of this response for a bit (it's so cleanly delivered, much like the problem), but then I realized that they [i]didn't[/i] pay $28. The $3 back can't really be considered a payment, can it? Rather, it's the $2 that the bellhop took that is the additional "payment."

I think JennyLeader put it perfectly; the "27 plus 2" part is the wrench in the machinery.
(1)
How is that a problem? they paid $30 and got $3 back equaling $27. The the bellhop pocketed the $2 (27-2) to bring the total money recieved by the hotel to $25.

Guys paid: $27
Hotel took: $25
Bellhop took: $2
May 15th, 2011
(1)
Or to restate everyone's "revelation": That 10-1=9 and that 9x3 is 27 have nothing to do with the problem. All too often just by repeating these irrelevancies I can keep someone rethinking it.
May 9th, 2011
(0)
Killer
May 10th, 2011
(0)
Genuinely great.
May 10th, 2011
(0)
Lovely. Simply charming.
May 10th, 2011
(0)
heh!
May 12th, 2011
(0)
Fuck geometry, learn bitches.
(1)
'Fuck geometry, [i]fuck[/i] bitches.' - Fix'd
(1)
Bitches [i]never[/i] learn. That's why they're bitches. Bitchiosity is inversely proportional to one's ability to learn.
May 13th, 2011
(0)
now this is funny!!
May 16th, 2011
(0)
 
April 20th, 2013
(0)
5.