Solution Step 0/0
Three guests check into a hotel. They decide to share a room, which they are told will cost $30 for the night. Each guest pays $10 and they go up to their room. However, a short time later, the night manager realizes that she should have only charged them $25 for the room. She therefore gives 5 single dollar bills to the bellhop and tells him to refund the guests’ money.
On the way up to the room, the bellhop reasons that there is no way for the three guests to split five dollars evenly, and they are not aware that they are owed a refund anyway, so the bellhop decides to keep $2 for himself, and simply tell the guests that they are each owed a refund of $1. And this he does.
Now, since the 3 guests each paid $10, but they each received a $1 refund, they each actually paid $9, and 9 times 3 equals $27. The bellhop kept $2, and 27 plus 2 is $29. But we started with $30.
What happened to the extra dollar?
On the way up to the room, the bellhop reasons that there is no way for the three guests to split five dollars evenly, and they are not aware that they are owed a refund anyway, so the bellhop decides to keep $2 for himself, and simply tell the guests that they are each owed a refund of $1. And this he does.
Now, since the 3 guests each paid $10, but they each received a $1 refund, they each actually paid $9, and 9 times 3 equals $27. The bellhop kept $2, and 27 plus 2 is $29. But we started with $30.
What happened to the extra dollar?
Explanations
The sum of $29 is arrived at by adding up the wrong things, to create a confusing result. The real math is as follows: of the $30 we started with, each of the guests has $1, making $3, the bellhop has $2, and there is $25 in the register, for a total of $30. Yes, the guests paid $27 total, $25 of it to the register and $2 (involuntarily) to the bellhop.Check There is no extra $1
Check Kept by bellhop
Check Kept by night manager
Check Lost in the hallway
