Here's one for the mathematically minded....

3 students purchase a secondhand TV for £30, each student paying £10. After the students have left the shop the shopkeeper decideds he has overcharged the students and decides to give them back £5. The shopkeeper sends his assistant after the students with five £1 coins.

The assistant gives each student a £1 coin and keeps two £1 coins for himself.

The students have now paid £9 each for the TV meaning it cost them £27and the assitant has two £1 coins in his pocket making a total of £29 pounds.

What happened to the missing £1 ?????

Took me ages...........

Cheers

Nick

Think I got it,

It's all in the wording,

The students paid £9 each for the Telly = £27
The shop keeper actaully recieved £25 (the £30 - the £5 he gave back).

£25 the shopkeeper has + £2 the assistant has = £27 what the students paid.

Right?????

There is no missing £1 as the tv should have cost £25 and the assistant kept the £2 change from the £27.

Ned.

Who cares, everybodys happy. The students have a bargain, the assistants made a few quid and the shopkeeper's happy.

To answer the question. The missing pound isn't actually missing. Its the difference between the three coins given to the students and the two which the assistant kept. OK, to try and simply explain it, forget about the three students. The TV cost £30 but should have been £25, so £5 was given to the assistant. £3 went to the person/s who bought the TV and the assistant kept the other two.

Its just how your brain tries to process the information

Damn........Pioneer X beat me to it

[Edited on 22-3-04 by Hellfire]

I'm not saying this is an old one but when I heard it it was '3 blokes bought a house for £60'!

thought i would add my name to the list of loosers who replied to this post...hehe..

"The students have now paid £9 each for the TV meaning it cost them £27and the assitant has two £1 coins in his pocket making a total of £29 pounds."

Should read..
"After having £3 back...The students have now paid £8.3333 each for the TV meaning it cost them £25 and the assitant has £2 in his pocket making a total of £27 pounds."

They gave the assistant the £2 cus they couldn't be arsed to work out the change!!!!

[Edited on 23/3/04 by richijenkin]

hey....I'll have you know that change could have fed me for a week!

well..maybe not

Mark

a man walks up to the Leeds Utd turnstyle, holds out £50, and says two please. The man on the till says '2 defenders or two strikers?'

how does that one add up?

Two pot noodles or pitta bread and salad?