Where is the missing dollar?

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  1. PlanksandNails profile image81
    PlanksandNailsposted 11 years ago

    Where is the missing dollar?

    A pizza costs $30. Three men agree, and each man pays $10 cash to split a pizza between them for dinner at a local pizzeria. The waiter realizes that he has made a mistake with the order; the pizza is on special for only $25. The waiter grabs $5 from the till to make up the difference for their order and walks towards the men's table. He cannot figure out how to evenly split the $5 between the three men, so he decides to give each man $1 and keep a $2 tip for himself. This meant each man paid $9 each for the pizza plus a $2 tip, which totals $29.

    What happened to the other $1?

  2. TerryK81 profile image60
    TerryK81posted 11 years ago

    the waiter just cheated them out of a $1.

  3. Gina145 profile image70
    Gina145posted 11 years ago

    There is no missing dollar.
    Each man paid $9, so in total they paid $27.
    The pizza cost $25, and the tip was $2, which brings the total spent to $27.

  4. Livingtwentyfirst profile image60
    Livingtwentyfirstposted 11 years ago

    No dollar is anywhere..any maths done bring a small error of only about 0-0.1

  5. SidKemp profile image84
    SidKempposted 11 years ago

    The men paid $10 each. Totalling $30.

    $25 ended up in the restaurant cash register. $3 ended up back with the men. $2 ended up with the waiter. Total $30.

    If you say that each man paid $9, that is also true. Each man paid $10, and got $1 back. So the total there is $27 that the three men paid. That $27 was $25 to the cash register and $2 to the waiter. No missing dollar there, either.

    The trick in the question is in the last line, where it says "each man paid $9 for the pizza PLUS a $2 tip." No, each man paid $9 for the pizza INCLUDING a $2 tip. The "missing" amount is $3, not $1, and it was not missing at all; It was returned to the three customers, $1 each.

  6. Dont Taze Me Bro profile image60
    Dont Taze Me Broposted 11 years ago

    Really? Each man paid $9.00 for the pizza? I don't think so,

    each man paid 8.333 for the pizza = $25 the total cost of the transaction, leaving $5.00 change to be returned (not part of the transaction) of which each man received a $1.00, not a refund but change - therefore totally outside the transaction cost and the waiter kept $2.00 tip from the change, again outside the cost of transaction.

    So, if you are paying attention it all adds up.

  7. Doc Snow profile image88
    Doc Snowposted 11 years ago

    What other $1?  There are two transactions here, not one.  The first is for $30, the second for $5.  Muddling the two creates an ingenious confusion.

    First, the men pay $30, which is received by the restaurant.  Everything balances.

    Second, the restaurant rebates $5.  This should be $1.67 each (neglecting the rounding error), but the waiter's skim of $2 takes $.67 from each man, leaving them $1 each instead.  Everything balances in this 3-way (or 5-way) transaction.

    Note, though, that this makes $28 ($25 true cost plus $3 'rebated') 'for the pizza', not $27!   That's the 'missing' dollar, since $28 plus $2 makes $30.

    Which amounts to what Sid and Don't Taze Me said, only they said it first and better.

  8. ftclick profile image57
    ftclickposted 11 years ago

    No. each of the 3 men spent  $10
    Pizza was $25, So they each received $1 back ($3 + $25 spent) equals $28.
    Waiter keeps $2. Nothing missing.
    Done !

  9. Slarty O'Brian profile image78
    Slarty O'Brianposted 11 years ago

    The answer is in the division of the 25 dollars, not the 30.They pay 10 dollars each but In the end each man pays 8.3333333 (the 3s after the decimal are infinite) for the pizza. Three times 8.3333333 etc, makes 25 dollars. The waiter pocketed 2 dollars and gave the remaining three to the three men. So the dollar is in the 33.33333 etc cents  .

    3 x 8 = 24
    3 x 33.33333 cents is rounded off to = 1 dollar

    So each man pays a 66.66666666 cent tip. which is the 2 dollars the waiter kept.

    3 x 66.6666666 =200 cents

    So to answer the question: The dollar is in the til. it is the twenty fifth dollar which all the men had to split.

    They each got one dollar back, and the waiter kept two, making the remaining 5 that makes 30.   

    Had he given them back exact change he would have had to give them each 1.6666666 etc back. So he would have had to keep a penny, leave it in the til, or physically split it three ways.

    He could have also just given them the 5 dollars back and let them fight over it.

 
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