Comments | flonnebonne: My friend was able to figure this riddle out but I wasn't :(

flonnebonne

My friend was able to figure this riddle out but I wasn't :(

Mar 13, 2010 12:22

Math-like riddle time!Three women go into a hotel and ask for a room to share. The receptionist tells them it will cost 30,000 yen, so the women pay 10,000 yen each ( Read more... )

misc, japanese

Comments 12

lucathia_rykatu March 13 2010, 21:00:05 UTC

That's quite some riddle! This was fun to think about.

flonnebonne March 14 2010, 23:01:35 UTC

Glad you had fun, instead of mind-numbing frustration like I did. :)

februaryfour March 13 2010, 23:43:53 UTC

Edit: Never mind, figured it out!

flonnebonne March 14 2010, 23:02:43 UTC

Whoops, sorry for not answering yesterday! But anyway, it's probably more satisfying that you were able to figure it out yourself. :)

wednesdayschild March 13 2010, 23:45:21 UTC

Took me a few minutes of going 'wtf' before I saw it XD

flonnebonne March 14 2010, 23:00:35 UTC

At least it was only a few minutes for you! I still didn't get it after a week. -_-

juin March 14 2010, 01:11:30 UTC

I... don't get it.

FINALLY, someone other than me who didn't get it. flonnebonne March 14 2010, 22:55:43 UTC

I'm going to copy and paste the answer Muri gave, since she wrote it nice and clearly:

There was an error made in the calculation of the prices; it shouldn't add up to the OLD room prices, but the NEW room prices.

Yes, they paid 9000 equally, but the new numbers should have added up to the NEW cost of the room. (Man, that sounded weird to me, but XD)

Look at it this way:

3 x 9000 (what the women paid after the refund) = 27000

But what they *really* should have paid, with the new deal = 25000

The bellhop took 2000, which is the difference between the 27000 and the 25000.

In conclusion, the money didn't go anywhere (well, besides the bellhop's pocket).

The error is in the fact that people expected the 9000 to go towards the old room price ... but the fact is, that number isn't valid anymore. The reason they GOT back the 1000 (after the cheating bellhop) WAS that the price had switched to 25000, right? XD

Otherwise, they wouldn't have gotten any of the money back at all.

Re: FINALLY, someone other than me who didn't get it. juin March 15 2010, 00:14:17 UTC

Oh, I think I kind of worked that out (after I posted my comment XD) but then it still didn't seem right to me?

...Okay, and now that I've thought about it a while it does make sense. LOL?

Re: FINALLY, someone other than me who didn't get it. flonnebonne March 15 2010, 06:31:03 UTC

I was the same way after my friend worked out the answer We kind of sat there looking at each other and saying, "Is that right? Is that right? I guess it's right."

It's more of an "uh, yeah" kind of riddle than an "ah ha!" one, I guess.

Deleted the comment ... XD murinae March 14 2010, 02:43:29 UTC

Oops, I deleted my comment because, well, I realized people might want to figure this out on their own without me blabbling my mouth off. *Blush* Sorry about that!!! But it was an awesome problem! :)

-muri

Re: Deleted the comment ... XD flonnebonne March 14 2010, 22:59:53 UTC

You got it right! And your answer was written so nice and clearly that I decided to take the liberty of copying and pasting it into my reply to juin above. I'll leave the answer up there for posterity so that people can see it if they're ever going through my journal's back entries for some reason. I figure posting the answer the next day (and buried in comments) is good enough "spoiler protection." :)