Where's $1?

Philippines
September 6, 2008 7:39pm CST
A Friend sent me a message about a problem that I once heard during school years, but I never had solved. It really keeps me thinking, where's the $1 by the way? Here's the story. Your mom gave you $50 and your father gave you another $50. All in all, you have $100 in your hand. Now, you went to a store and saw a shirt costs $97, then you bought it and you only have $3 left in your wallet. You gave $1 to your mother as well as $1 to your father. So your parents totally gave you $49 each. Now, here's the question: Since you gave $1 each to your parents, so they actually gave you $49 times 2 for a total of $98. Since you had the $1, Where's actually the other $1 to sum it up to $100?
1 response
elguiruela
@elguiruela (631)
• Japan
7 Sep 08
The question doesn't make sense. Why make a question from the first scenario to answer a fact in the second scenario which is totally different from the first one? Here are the two scenarios (and they tally): SCENARIO 1: $50 (father) + $50 (mother) = $97 (shirt) + $3 (change) = $100 (total) SCENARIO 2: $49 (father) + $49 (mother) = $97 (shirt) + $1 (change) = $98 (total) The question asks a twist by getting data in SCENARIO 2 and equating it to SCENARIO 1, which is wrong in the first place. [b]TWIST:[b] $49 (father) + $49 (mother) + $1 (change) = $100 (total) You can look at it like this, let us say you are a bank accountant and your balancing the bank's sheets today. You really had a hard day and made so much overtime because you cannot balance what came out from the bank and what came in. Then you realize you were using yesterday's data and you said sh*t! Get the point?
m_sm1982
@m_sm1982 (31)
• Philippines
9 Sep 08
Hi Thanks elguiruela... I still didnt get the point..how can $49 = $ 49 = $1 becomes $100? As Ive seen in my its just $99. I know Im just making a confusion here. But I just relay the message that was just asked on me... I was trying to figure out if there's a great explanation to this math problem...