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Three friend share a meal in a restaurant and split the bill.  The waiter charges them £30, so they pay £10 each. However, the waiter comes back afterwards and says he has overcharged 
them and the bill should have been £25. Of the £5 they are owed, they agree to take £1 each and tip the waiter the remaining £2 to thank him for his honesty. They have now each paid £9 for the meal.
But: three nines are £27, plus the £2 which the waiter got is £29. Where did the extra pound go?

Remember, the absolute sum is unalterable at £30.00. That is hard fact.  

 

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It was divided between the three of them proportionally, as the meal now cost them £8.333333 each, not £8, with the waiter receiving a tip of £0.666666 from each customer. Fractions are easier than recurring numbers :(

 

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Yes the meal was £27 including the £2 tip and not plus it.

I have heard that one before and did my head right in 😄

 

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2 hours ago, 1949threepence said:

Three friend share a meal in a restaurant and split the bill.  The waiter charges them £30, so they pay £10 each. However, the waiter comes back afterwards and says he has overcharged 
them and the bill should have been £25. Of the £5 they are owed, they agree to take £1 each and tip the waiter the remaining £2 to thank him for his honesty. They have now each paid £9 for the meal.
But: three nines are £27, plus the £2 which the waiter got is £29. Where did the extra pound go?

Remember, the absolute sum is unalterable at £30.00. That is hard fact.  

 

Ok, I'm not looking at other answers so this is entirely off the top off my head.

The £9 is rather misleading. They should have paid £25/3 = £8.33 each plus a 66p share of a £2 tip to the waiter. I.e. £9 each IN TOTAL including the tip to the waiter. So they actually paid the waiter £3 too much. 

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£27 = total amount of money pay

£27 = price of the meal £25 + tip £2

Adding £2 to £27 makes no sense at all as £27 already includes the £2 tip.

£30 = £27 (money paid) + £3 (£1 refund each) as pointed out above

Edited by Sword

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By the way, there was no "solution" with this. I suppose it's just left to resolve via logical application.

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7 hours ago, 1949threepence said:

By the way, there was no "solution" with this. I suppose it's just left to resolve via logical application.

The question you posed was, "Where did the extra pound go?"

The "solution", if you will, is the explanation that there NEVER  was an extra pound to be found (except possibly upon those 3 who dined at that restaurant  [although if 3 people shared 1 meal, I doubt that they have an extra ounce, let alone a pound ]).

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On 8/11/2018 at 5:37 PM, PWA 1967 said:

Yes the meal was £27 including the £2 tip and not plus it.

I have heard that one before and did my head right in 😄

 

It's a logical impossibility, Pete.

The true cost of the meal, as you say, is £27.00 (£25.00 + the £2.00 they give to the waiter as a tip) therefore 27/3 = £9.00. That leaves £3.00 from the original £30.00, of which they all got £1.00 each.

Total still £30.00 

That's how it works out in reality.   

 

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