The Impossible Math Problem
Three men are traveling and get tired, so they decide to spend the night at a nearby inn. When they go to the front desk, the innkeeper charges them $30 ($10 each), and the three men go to their rooms and go to sleep. Then the innkeeper realizes that he was only supposed to charge the men $25 total, so he gives $5 to the bellboy to give to the men. But on the way to the men's rooms, the bellboy thinks to himself, "Hey, I've been so good I deserve some money." So he keeps $2 and gives the remaining $3 to the men. Because they each get $1 back, they paid $9 instead of $10 each. But 3x9=$27, and $30-the taken $2=$28. Where is the missing dollar?
Answer: There is no missing dollar. You have to think, why are you half-finishing one problem then jumping to the next? You should be doing 3x9= $27, then subtracting the $2 because the bellboy took it. That gives you $25, just the amount they paid the innkeeper.
I chose to write about the Impossible Math Problem for this assignment. It was one of the riddles the teacher gave to us to solve at the beginning of the school year, and most of us didn't understand it until the teacher explained it to us. I chose this assignment because it was an interesting problem to solve and it exercised the brain. It is also fun solving the problem, because once you find the answer everything becomes clear.
From the assignment, I learned that some problems need to be solved by thinking outside the box, meaning the problem isn't necessarily solved by using the facts given to you, but by your ability to come up with the answer yourself. For the problem, you have to think about the problem not just in the way they say it, but also in a different way, the way of thinking outside the box. Don't just base your response off facts given to you, also base it off of thoughts you have about the problem.
From the assignment, I learned that some problems need to be solved by thinking outside the box, meaning the problem isn't necessarily solved by using the facts given to you, but by your ability to come up with the answer yourself. For the problem, you have to think about the problem not just in the way they say it, but also in a different way, the way of thinking outside the box. Don't just base your response off facts given to you, also base it off of thoughts you have about the problem.