Page 1 of DO NOT READ JUST B4 BED

Well if do, dont blame me if you are up all night trying to get your head around this......



3 brothers are off to buy a new TV

They have settled on a set costing £300, each paying £100.
They give the give the sales chap the money, and he informs them to wait out side and he will bring one out from the store room to there car.

While the sales chap is getting the set his boss points out that the TV should have been reduced by £50 on a "Today only offer". So he returns to the till to get £50 quid out to give back to the brothers.

Off the Sales man goes again to take the set out the brothers and to give them there £50, but he is no good at math's and can not work out how to split the £50 3 ways. As he gets to the doors of the store he thinks sod it, I will give them £10 each and I will have the £20 for down the pub tonight.

So Mr. Sale's man gives the brothers £10 each and the TV. They are more than happy with there little bit off cash back, thank the sales man and head home to enjoy there new TV.

And here ends the story, but now for the problem.

1st bro pays £100 for the TV and is given £10 back. Thus his share cost £90

2nd bro pays £100 for the TV and is given £10 back. Thus his share cost £90

3rd bro pays £100 for the TV and is given £10 back. Thus his share cost £90

So the 3 brothers have paid £90 each to a total of 3 x £90 = £270

And that nice sales man is down the pub with £20

So £270 + £20 = £290

But did the lads not hand over £300 for the TV at first?
Where is the other £10 gone?


If you know the answer, or work it out please give it a few days for the others to have a go at.

Yeah ive seen a similar one before but i wont say how it works.

Any chance you can post a link to the answer coz i really cannot wait a couple of days, i would pull my hair out.

cheers
enemy

There isn`t actually an answer to this, well the answer is in the wording of the conundrum. The money IS there, but it`s been moved around too much. However, that said, I would LOVE an answer to this one written down.

I won`t give it away ;-)

But it`s a bit like that old trick we all did as a kid to "prove" we have 11 fingers, rather than 10.

(No, not the rude version - I mean the one that girls could do as well!)

Mike

This item was edited on Sunday, 18th August 2002, 11:23

Can we answer yet???


Ste

is this how the likes of enron and worldcom manage their accounts... ?

"And that nice sales man is down the pub with £20

So £270 + £20 = £290"

Nope, the trick is that is should be:

So £270 - £20 = £250

(They`ve overpaid by £20 - `cos the manager nicked it to go down the pub) & the 250 correspnds to the amount in the till. It`s down to the wording & you not questioning the signs in the equation - just the numbers.

And now to make a lier of me its let me edit it!

Computers and Humans dont mix. Its not the fault of the computers mind you, just that we can blame them as they dont correct you when you do.

And if they could correct you, they would not need to. As they would correct your errors before you blamed them.

This item was edited on Tuesday, 20th August 2002, 02:03