Maths Teaser - Doing my head in - HELP

[chucky1973]

Can you answer this, doing my head in.

You see a top for £97, but dont have the money, so you borrow £50 from your mum and £50 from your dad. = £100
You buy the top and get £3 change, you then decide to give your mum back £1 and your dad back £1 and you keep the other pound for yourself.
You now owe your mum £49 and your dad £49.
But...£49 + £49 = £98, you have £1 = £99
Where is the other £1

 

[strings]

You owe your Mum and Dad 50p each, surely??

[edit] Oh bugger, thats wrong...

 

[chucky1973]

You owe your Mum and Dad 50p each, surely??

read it again, where is that £1?

 

[Triggaaar]

But...£49 + £49 = £98, you have £1 = £99

That's your mistake. £49 + £49 = £98, which is your debt. You have a £97 top + £1 = £98.

 

[strings]

read it again, where is that £1?

Yep, read it again before I saw your post. I award myself one facepalm.

 

[Bozza]

No, you have a top worth £97 and £1 in cash. Your Mum and Dad each have £1. £97 + £1 + £1 + £1 = £100.

If you took the top back - buyer's remorse and all that - you'd then have £98 in cash, which you could use to repay your parents the £49 you owe each of them.

 

[CorgiRegisteredFriend]

£97 is rather steep for a top.

 

[essbee]

was the top in the sale?

 

[Questions]

Is the answer Philidelphia ?

 

[The Optimist]

Have ................... Owe
£100 ................... £100
£97 jumper + £3 .... £100
£97 jumper + £1 .... £98

Everything is balanced. There is no missing £1. The trick is in the phrasing, there is no reason why it should all add up to £100 at the end.

 

[soistes]

Don't really see the problem. You still owe them £98, which is made up of the £97 you paid the shop for the top, and the £1 you "kept" for yourself.

A more interesting question is why on earth you'd spend as much as £97 on a top

 

[Fred Oliver - Legend]

You have the other pound, I just dont think you should be using it in the final calculation?

 

[chucky1973]

got it now. Thank you.

The power of NSC.

 

[Triggaaar]

Everything is balanced. There is no missing £1. The trick is in the phrasing

The trick is always in the phrasing / misleading nonsense. In this case it's:

But...£49 + £49 = £98, you have £1 = £99

There is no need to add your debt to you parents (£49 + £49) to the cash you have (£1). Adding one of your assets to your liabilities to make the whole thing confusing.

 

[Codner pharmaceuticals]

got it now. Thank you.

The power of NSC.

Did you get "Barnes #9" put on the back of it?

 

[Muzzy]

If you pay £97 for your tops, I wouldn't worry about £1 if I were you.

 

[Manx Shearwater]

This deffo wasn't from Primark then?

 

[seagullsovergrimsby]

Why are you paying £1 each to your parents ? 50p each is quite enough before telling them you cannot afford to pay back the remainder.

 

[Wilko]

Have ................... Owe
£100 ................... £100
£97 jumper + £3 .... £100
£97 jumper + £1 .... £98

Everything is balanced. There is no missing £1. The trick is in the phrasing, there is no reason why it should all add up to £100 at the end.

You should be a maths teacher

 

[Mew]

I'm tired today, please explain:

- this is a many layered joke that I just don't get
- the OP genuinely believes 97 / 2 is a maths teaser
- the OP works for George Osborne