Call me stupid. But if I can
The problem is that the drinks are too damn expensive.
Okay, the problem is with the $2 the waitress has. You can’t add that to the the money they paid to get to $30. They paid $30, were given back $3 taking them to $27 and the $2 would have taken it back to $25. Adding it to the total amount paid is incorrect. I like this problem though.
The error is where you say that she gives them back three or keeps two for herself. If she keeps $2 then they paid $27 ($25 for the bill plus $2 kept by the waitress) and received $3 back which makes the total $30.
The bottom logic is flawed somehow…let me see if I can find a website that talks about this math problem…
the problem is this :
You’re asking us to subtract 3 from 30, and then add two…of course there will be one missing.
The problem should be rearranged like this.
The boss ask’s the waitress to give them back 5 dollars…so this means that the drinks actually cost only $25, regardless of what the waitress does to the money…so that means that each man actually paid a total $8 1/3 for the drinks (even though they will never know it)…so, when they get the money back from the waitress, that’s one more dollar each…and it seem to them that they saved a dollar…but, since the drinks only actually cost $8.33, they actually got ripped off because they wound up paying 9.33 for each drink...but to them they saved .66…and the waitress got two dollars.
SO…
30 - 5= 25 (cost of all drinks)
25/3= 8 1/3 (cost of each drink)
8 1/3 + 1 = 9 1/3
9 1/3 x 3= 28
28 + 2 = 30
All the money is accounted for…Thanks…that really exercised the brain.
-Brian