3 house mates go to buy a new microwave at the shop!
It costs £30 so they each put up £10.
At the till the shopkeeper tells them it is actually only £25 and hands them back 5 pound coins. The 3 pals each pocket a pound and give the last £2 to the shopkeeper as a tip.
As they walk away one of them says "Hey,we all paid £10 but got a pound back so we ended up paying £9 each? 3 x 9 is £27 and we gave the guy a £2 tip. That makes £29?
What happened to the other pound?"
Anyone solve this one cos i certainly can't?
As Don Sicilia pointed out, you can't solve the puzzle that way (you're mixing apples and oranges).
Look at it this way... the microwave cost £25. Each of the three guys had to kick in £8.33 for that. If they each pocketed a pound, that brings up their individual outlay to £9.33. Thus the total amount covered was £27.99 (9.33 x 3), so let's round that off to £28.00. The £2 tip balances out the original £30.
