I Know Something Danny Baker Doesn't Know
Three people go into a restaurant. Their meal comes to £30, so they each pay £10. The waiter takes this £30 to the kitchen, where the chef says "No, fool - the meal was £25! Take £5 back to them".
On his way back to the table the waiter thinks "A ha! They don't know that it's £25. My luck is in!" and he dishonestly pockets £2 out of the fiver and gives them back £1 apiece.
Now this means that they've only paid £9 each. Three nines are £27, plus the £2 that the waiter took, only adds up to £29. Where did the missing pound out of that fiver go? You start with £30, take a fiver off, £3 to the customers and £2 to the waiter - 3x9 = 27 + 2 = 29, not 30. What happened to the £1???
This conundrum was told by Danny Baker at the start of the week on the unmissable (I'm not kidding or being sarcastic, it really is great - record it and see, it's on Five) Terry and Gaby show. It still has him stumped. He still says he can't figure it out.
But I can! Ha!!! Although I think he might be fibbing and he really can figure it out.
The mistake that Danny made was to include the waiter's theft twice and to ignore that £3 had been refunded to the customers.
The customers paid £27. £25 went to the restaurant for the meal; £2 went to the waiter. So that £27 already includes the waiter's theft - adding it in again is just silly. To get to £30 you have to add the £3 refund that the customers got. That is the only bit of the original £30 that isn't already accounted for in the £27.
It is confusing because the numbers are so close together - if you say the meal only cost £1 but they paid £10 and were only refunded £1 then the waiter ends up stealing £24 - the customers pay £30, they get a refund of £3, £3 goes to the restaurant for the meal and the other £24 goes to the crook. Using those figures in the original conundrum would give you "customers paid £27, plus the £24 the waiter stole makes £51", which is nowhere near £30 and gives the game away completely.
I wrote to Danny Baker and laid out my explanation. Did he read it out? Did he buggery. He read out a wrong answer, dismissed it and hasn't brought the subject up since that day. He professed to still be none the wiser. Even though he had had my email since one o'clock Wednesday morning!!! A whole ten hours before the show started!
On his way back to the table the waiter thinks "A ha! They don't know that it's £25. My luck is in!" and he dishonestly pockets £2 out of the fiver and gives them back £1 apiece.
Now this means that they've only paid £9 each. Three nines are £27, plus the £2 that the waiter took, only adds up to £29. Where did the missing pound out of that fiver go? You start with £30, take a fiver off, £3 to the customers and £2 to the waiter - 3x9 = 27 + 2 = 29, not 30. What happened to the £1???
This conundrum was told by Danny Baker at the start of the week on the unmissable (I'm not kidding or being sarcastic, it really is great - record it and see, it's on Five) Terry and Gaby show. It still has him stumped. He still says he can't figure it out.
But I can! Ha!!! Although I think he might be fibbing and he really can figure it out.
The mistake that Danny made was to include the waiter's theft twice and to ignore that £3 had been refunded to the customers.
The customers paid £27. £25 went to the restaurant for the meal; £2 went to the waiter. So that £27 already includes the waiter's theft - adding it in again is just silly. To get to £30 you have to add the £3 refund that the customers got. That is the only bit of the original £30 that isn't already accounted for in the £27.
It is confusing because the numbers are so close together - if you say the meal only cost £1 but they paid £10 and were only refunded £1 then the waiter ends up stealing £24 - the customers pay £30, they get a refund of £3, £3 goes to the restaurant for the meal and the other £24 goes to the crook. Using those figures in the original conundrum would give you "customers paid £27, plus the £24 the waiter stole makes £51", which is nowhere near £30 and gives the game away completely.
I wrote to Danny Baker and laid out my explanation. Did he read it out? Did he buggery. He read out a wrong answer, dismissed it and hasn't brought the subject up since that day. He professed to still be none the wiser. Even though he had had my email since one o'clock Wednesday morning!!! A whole ten hours before the show started!
