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riddles >> easy >> Money for nothing
(Message started by: BNC on Jan 30th, 2003, 9:09am)

Title: Money for nothing
Post by BNC on Jan 30th, 2003, 9:09am
Betty and Veronica are both selling apples at the market. Betty is selling her apples at 2 per $1, and Veronica is selling hers at 3 per $2. Each of them has 30 apples.

Betty and Veronica decided to sell their apples together – 5 apples per $3. At the end of the day, they found they sold all 60 apples. Counting the money, the found they had between them $36.

Betty calculated that had she sold her 30 apples, she would have had $15. Veronica calculated that she would have $20.

An extra dollar? Interesting……




Title: Re: Money for nothing
Post by Chris on Jan 30th, 2003, 10:05am
Money for nothing would actually be a good concept...

Betty sells her apples at 2 per $1 ie $.5 per apple. Veronica sells her apples at 3 per $2 ie $.66 per apple.

When they sell their apples together, they package 2 of Betty's apples with 2 of Veronica's and sell them at 5 per $3 (so $1 would go to Betty and $2 would go to Veronica.) For the first 10 customers buying 5 apples, a total of 50 apples would be sold and 10x$3 $30 would be earned. At this point, Betty has sold 20 of her apples and Veronica has sold all 30 of her apples. This is where the confusion occurs.

Up to now, both girls recieve their fair share of money. But to sell the remaining 10 apples together, Betty must give 6 apples to Veronica. But since Betty's apples are worth $.5 to her if she sells them on her own, and Veronica's apples are woth $.66 if she sells them on her own, the "extra" dollar comes from the difference in value of these 6 apples (.66-.5)x6=$1.

If the remaining 10 apples are sold by Betty, the total income of both would be $35 as it would have been if both girls sold their apples individually. But since 6 of Betty's apples are being sold for $.16 more than her selling price, the extra dollar comes in.



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