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where did the last 1$ go??????

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hawkan2580

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3 men stopped in at a "massage parlour" and the owner charged $10 each for the service with a happy ending. Thus, they've paid $30 in total.
After they've gone and loudly complained, stating that happy ending should indeed make them just that - Happy. She thought about the reputation of the establishment and decided to send a messenger back refunding $ 5 to the men... the messenger was a shady little character and thought to himself.. they don't know that it is $5 I'm bringing so I just give them $1 each back and keep $2 to myself. Thus they now paid $9 each for the service they recieved...

So explain this.. 3x9 = 27.. the messenger had $2 thus we now have a total of $29.. where the heck did the last 1$ go?
 
Pulse

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Well technically they didn't pay $9 ea after the refund. That's just what they will assume given a $1 back ea.

In reality, the money will break down like this

$30 originally paid total
minus $5 that the owner gave the guy to give back to them
Minus the $2 he kept for himself and then $1ea he gave ea of the customers....

So....

They really paid $8.33 ea + $1 refund = $9.33

Multiply that times 3 and you get $28 leaving the last $2 that the guy took...

So the extra dollar ended up with the customers split 3 ways .33ea (of course i'm rounding instead of using the actual .3333333333 split.

Is this what you were looking for?
 
David

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Write out a table:

Deskman Bellboy Men
----------------------------
$0 $0 $30 <-- men have not yet paid
$30 $0 $0 <-- men pay
$25 $5 $0 <-- deskman pays bellboy
$25 $2 $3 <-- bellboy stiffs men
----------------------------
$25 $2 -$27 <-- what each group of people has
after all the transactions

Here, the last row is simply the difference between row 4 and row 1.
In all but the last row, the sum of the dollar values along each row
is constant and equal to $30. In the last row, the apparent fallacy is
that the men and the bellboy should have 30 dollars between them, but
this statement is false, as it obviously ignores the question of what
the deskman has. In fact, the correct statement about the last row is
that the sum of what the deskman and the bellboy have must equal the
debt of the three men.

The men have collectively paid 27 dollars , which is
obvious, since the bellboy took $2 and the actual cost was $25. And so
we see that there is no missing dollar, because the $27 the men paid
is a debt, written as a *negative* number, and the $2 the bellboy took
is a profit, which is a *positive* number, and the sum is not $29, but
a debt of $25, which was paid to the deskman.

To exaggerate the example, suppose the cost of the room was $5, the
bellboy taking $22, the men getting $3. Then it becomes clear that the
$27 that the men wound up paying for the room, "plus" the $22 the
bellboy takes, just doesn't equal anything meaningful. What's going on
is that $22 of the $27 that the men paid is now in the bellboy's
pocket, so adding $22 to $27 is in essence counting the bellboy's
money twice.
 
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hawkan2580

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Pulse said:
Well technically they didn't pay $9 ea after the refund. That's just what they will assume given a $1 back ea.

In reality, the money will break down like this

$30 originally paid total
minus $5 that the owner gave the guy to give back to them
Minus the $2 he kept for himself and then $1ea he gave ea of the customers....

So....

They really paid $8.33 ea + $1 refund = $9.33

Multiply that times 3 and you get $28 leaving the last $2 that the guy took...

So the extra dollar ended up with the customers split 3 ways .33ea (of course i'm rounding instead of using the actual .3333333333 split.

Is this what you were looking for?
Click to expand...
This is the correct thing.. a very common sales tactic to mislead the customer to believe they are getting more then they are doing.. all the paramiters can be exchanged for goods
the bellboy is a value add service and the refund is the negotiated discount...

I don't use this sort of tactics anymore, but it is surprising how many people fall into this trap when looking at goods with a cash back redemtion system etc... just thought I would share it..

And Dave.. you need to sit down and smoke a good cigar mate ha ha when you state that the total amount paid by the men was 27.. and the $2 was profit.. well you just fell into the same pit.....the three men also paid for the bellboys money...it was just presented as they didn't when they got the $1 each back.... so Pulse was right on the money!!!
 
Pulse

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hehehe.....where's my Bozo button for winning? lol, I guess 15 yrs of sales has finally paid off....lmao!!:smt081
 
Kurtdesign1

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I think an easier way to explain this is by saying $3 of actual refunded money was taken off of the original $30 spent (equaling $27). Not added to $25 in order to get $28 (Not equaling $27 causing the $1 problem).
$25 is the value that the shop owner was willing to accept for the 'services' instead of $30.

It's just a simplified answer for all of those who don't want to bother figuring out what the hell Pulse said!
 
tedski

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What I want to know is where this massage parlour is located that provides "happy endings" for $10 ... and also gives refunds?
 
Pulse

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tedski said:
What I want to know is where this massage parlour is located that provides "happy endings" for $10 ... and also gives refunds?
Click to expand...
LMAO!!!! :smt081 :smt082
 
David

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hawkan2580 said:
And Dave.. you need to sit down and smoke a good cigar mate ha ha when you state that the total amount paid by the men was 27.. and the $2 was profit.. well you just fell into the same pit.....the three men also paid for the bellboys money...it was just presented as they didn't when they got the $1 each back.... so Pulse was right on the money!!!
Click to expand...
Don't blame me...you think I'm smart enough to type all that!

http://mathforum.org/dr.math/faq/faq.missing.dollar.html
 
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