Disappearing Money Problem

[1p0kerb0y]

You decide to rent a hotel room with 2 of your good friends to throw a party. You are checking in at the front desk, where the HOTEL MANAGER tells you that the room will cost you $30 for the night. You each dig into your wallets and come up with $10 each to split the cost and head to the room to put some of the beer on ice.

The HOTEL MANAGER then realizes that he forgot to give you the $5 discount for being a local. He then calls the BELL HOP to the desk and instructs him to bring the $5 to the room.

On his way to the room, the BELL HOP decides that $5 cannot be split up amongst the three of you evenly anyhow, so he keeps $2 for himself and ends up giving your group $3, which you all divide evenly amongst yourselves.

So, in essence, you all paid $9 each for the hotel room, for a total of $27. The BELL HOP kept $2 for his troubles, totaling $29. Where did the final dollar go of the original $30?

[KingMarc]

You each pay $10. That's 30. 5 gets taken out. So you now have paid 25/3, which is 8.33. You then get a dollar back, meaning you have each paid 9.33.

9.33*3 = 28
28+2 from bellyhop = 30

~DVL

Edit: This is because you are all splitting the $2 the bellhop gets. You each pay .66 towards the bellhop. 10-.66 = 9.33.

[BruceZ]

[ QUOTE ]
So, in essence, you all paid $9 each for the hotel room, for a total of $27. The BELL HOP kept $2 for his troubles, totaling $29.

[/ QUOTE ]

No, you don't add that $2 to the $27! The $27 is the TOTAL that we paid, which already includes the busboy's $2. We really paid $25 for the room, which the hotel manager now has, and the busboy's $2 is added on top of that $25 to equal the $27 total that we paid out. Then the extra $3 that we get back accounts for the orignal $30.

room: $25
busboy : $2
---------------
total: $27
cash: $30
change: $3

[RiverTheNuts]

good old 4th grade logic problems