Clever Misdirection

by TD 16 Replies latest jw friends

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  TD

  I was looking at the (mostly) wrong answers to a riddle that's making the rounds on social media and thought it was a good example of how something simple (In this case, grade school math) can be distorted with words
  

  The riddle goes like this:

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  I bought a cow For $800.

  I sold it for $1000.

  I bought it again for $1100.

  I sold it again for $1300

  How much did I earn?

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  Here is a more subtle example of the same thing:

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  Three people split a lunch tab of $30. Each of them pays $10
  

  On her way back to the table, the server realizes she's overcharged them by $5.

  It's not possible to split $5 evenly between three people, so she returns $1 to each of them and keeps $2 for herself

  When the manager finds out, she asks:

  "Okay. The three customers ended up paying $9 each and you have $2. That's only $29. Where's the extra dollar?"

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  Following the semantic flow leads to a wrong answer in both cases and there's probably a lesson in there somewhere
  
• 

  peacefulpete

  That second example is the trickiest. The key is to take what the actual bill was (25) and add the tip (27 or 9x3). add the 3 she gave back =$30. The slippery part is the tip, it's actually included in the 27 and not a separate expense.
• 

  slimboyfat

  First one: $400

  But I wouldn’t say “earned it”. It’s a trade, I’d call it profit.
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  RULES & REGULATIONS

  I bought a cow For $800.
  I sold it for $1000.
  I bought it again for $1100.
  I sold it again for $1300

  uses own money = $800

  sells for $1000 = profit $200

  buys at $1100...uses $200 profit plus adds another $100 of his own money

  has $900 invested in own money

  sells for $1300, minus $900 of invested money

  profit $400
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  Fisherman

  As it relates to Bible prophecy, count the money (prophits) at the end of the day.
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  Beth Sarim

  Yes. Always follow the money,
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  neat blue dog

  Pete you're overthinking it, nothing to do with tip. The three dollars were subtracted resulting in 27 and the remaining $2 to be consistent should also have been, resulting in 25. The manager subtracted 3 and then added 2 for some bizarre reason.
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  jhine

  I think that the answer to the first one is $300 .

  Jan
• 

  Jeffro

  Fisherman:

  As it relates to Bible prophecy, count the money (prophits) at the end of the day.

  The only way this relates to 'Bible prophecy' is that both are examples of misdirection.
  
• 

  TD

  Good answers

  Both riddles attempt to trick the reader into committing an accounting error.

  Here's an actual example (From Facebook) of how the "I bought a cow" riddle does that:

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  First, the riddle says I bought a cow for $800. Thereafter I sold it for $1000. So I make $1000-$800 = $200.

  Now the 3rd statement says I bought it again for $1100. Here if you see, I have bought the same cow again for $1100. So I had a loss of $100 as previously the cow was sold for $1000 and bought again at $1100.

  Next statement of the riddle says I sold it again for $1300. So now I have made $1300-$1100=$200 in this transaction.

  So I made $200 – $100 + $200 = $300.

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  The problem with the explanation above is that the $1100 figure has been subtracted twice, which in this case, results in a $100 error.

  On an actual balance sheet, you would have Sales of $2300 and Expenses of $1900, giving a bottom line of +$400

  The misdirection in the second riddle is entirely in the last line, where the manager adds the $2 to the $27 to arrive at a completely meaningless figure.

  $30 was collected, of which $3 was given as change and $2 was kept as a tip leaving $25 as the actual cost of the meal. The order in which the $3 and $2 are subtracted doesn't matter as long as they're both subtracted.
  

  The point here is that even the simplest of things can be obfuscated. Math cuts through bullshit like a machete, but misdirection takes many other forms.