UPDATE: Stealth points awarded!
Timmer: 2 points for answering the original question
Elyse: 2 points for finding an error in the problem and answering correctly using that info
Victor: 1 point because he's single-handedly kept the stealth points program alive
Don't you miss word problems? I sure do. Those were the kick-assest (kickest ass? kick assingest? never mind) part of school as far as I'm concerned.
Here's one for your enjoyment:
Bob the Sailor (a cousin of Bob the Builder, but without the little trademark thingy after his name) needed some rope. He went to Crafty McRippoff, the only boat supply shop in town.
"Hey, Crafty! I need me some rope. Argh!" he said as he entered the shop.
"Sure, Bob. Why are you saying 'Argh'? Are you pretending to be a pirate or something?"
"Nope, just caught sight of your prices."
"Ah, that's expected. How much rope do you need?"
"About 20 feet."
"I've got a 100 foot spool, I'll break it for you for a quarter a foot."
"That's a ripoff!"
"Hence the name. You want the rope?"
"Yeah, go ahead and cut me 20 feet."
Now Bob knew that Crafty was dishonest as well as ... er ... crafty and he had heard that the shop-owner used an 11 inch ruler. Being a clever fellow he waited until McRippoff had cut '20 feet' off of the spool and then sprung a surprise on him.
"You know what?" Bob said. "Come to think of it I'm going to need more rope than that. I'll take the 80 feet left on the spool instead." [Editor's note: 'instead' added for clarity.]
"Argh!" said Crafty. His ripoff had just been countered! He couldn't say anything without admitting he was a cheat so he was forced to sell 80 feet plus of rope for the price of 80.
Bob paid him with a $100 bill. Crafty didn't have change for a bill that big so he went next store to the candle-maker and broke the bill there. (The candle-maker always kept large amounts of small bills on hand because he was a small time drug dealer. Hey, nobody said this was a great neighborhood.)
Bob took his change and his rope and left the shop, laughing all the way. He wasn't only laughing over having foiled Crafty's swindle. He was laughing at his own little bit of chicanery. You see, the 100 dollar bill he had paid with was a counterfeit.
The Question: How much did Crafty lose on this sale compared to what he would have made on a straight honest deal? (Don't worry about his cost of goods. For this exercise we'll pretend he got the rope at no cost.)
IF he did use an 11 Inch ruler when he cut off the 20 feet he lost 1.666 feet of rope.
He still made $20.00 for the rope.
Correct! Crafty lost only the monetary value of 20 inches of rope, or about 42 cents.
Bonus question: How much did Bob get out of this crooked deal?
I'm going to have to disagree with you. Crafty charged Bob $25 for the rope, $5 for 18 1/3 feet and $20 for 81 2/3 feet. The real price would have been $25. The counterfeit bill was given to the candle maker, so Crafty still got $25 from the change, so the only person out is the candle maker, $100. Bob still made $75 from the deal, but he was ripped off with the ridiculous price in the first place, so you can't put an exact amount on the money he made.
Oh yeah, Crafty made the same amount of money from the deal if it would have been honest.
Only 80 feet was sold to Bob for $20. I can see where that might have been unclear though. Add an "instead" to the end of "I'll take the 80 feet left on the spool".
My apologies.
Now you know why I'm not a psychometrician.
But you'd have been completely correct if Bob had bought all of the rope just in two sections.
And when the candle-maker discovered that the $100 was a phony he had Crafty and Bob kneecapped.
Seriously. People are debating the answer to a word problem. It's like my 4th grade math teacher's second coming!
math+word problem+job stress+too much Spanish wine=ooh! Look! Something sparkly!
No, I'm not a female stereotype. A stressed-out project manager on the verge of alcoholism? Oh yeah. I got your stereotype!
Well, the "stealth point program" was my idea, so I feel obligated to keep my child alive...unlike someone who may or may not have considered infanticide when she discovered one of her kids flushed a cup down the toilet.
(Just looking to plug the best laugh I've had in weeks!)
Helen - That's nothing. Back in school we used to rip apart word problems. There was a group of 4 of us who would answer every question with the wrong answer every time and then prove our answer by interpreting the clues in ways the author never intended. Alas, I wrote this one in my author guise instead of my math ass guise so I did the same thing.
Victor - They say that humor can save your life. Lovely Wife's sense of humor definitely saved Burger's life that day.