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Topic: Restaurant Bill Riddle (Read 779 times) |
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william wu
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Restaurant Bill Riddle
« on: Jan 14th, 2004, 7:10pm » |
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A netizen recently e-mailed me asking if I had heard of the following riddle, which I have not. Perhaps someone else has and could supply the details, which I could then forward to her with due credit?
> PS-I heard a sort of riddle quite a while ago and
> can't remember the way it goes. I thought since you
> were the master of riddles you might have heard of it.
> It is similar to the one about the 3 hotel guests that
> paid $30 and the bellhop had to return 5 dollars but
> kept 2 for himself...anyway-the one I am thinking of
> is played out on a piece of paper and its about 3 men
> who are at a resturant and split the bill. All I
> rememeber is it was done in like 3 columns and the
> bill total was more then the amounts given but they
> all over paid somehow. It was really a mathamatical trick.
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Icarus
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Re: Restaurant Bill Riddle
« Reply #1 on: Jan 14th, 2004, 8:21pm » |
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This reminded me of a story I read in - where else - a collection of Martin Gardner's articles (I have 4 such collections right now). After some searching I found it, and though the situation in this story is different from the restaurant one described, it is possible the intended riddle was another version of the same joke - Gardner says it was an old burlesque routine from Vaudeville days, but involving only two men. The version here, which Gardner gave, comes from Irvin S. Cobb's A Laugh a Day Keeps the Doctor Away, published in 1923:
"Three patricians of the coal yards fared forth on mercy bent, each in his great black chariot. Their overlord, the yard superintendent, had bade them deliver to seven families a total of twenty-eight tons of coal equally divided.
"Well out of the yards, each with his first load, Kelly and Burke and Shea paused to discuss the problem of equal distribution - how much coal should each family get?
"'`Tis this way,' argued Burke, '`Tis but a bit of mathematics. If there are 7 families an' 28 tons o' coal ye divide 28 by 7, which is done as follows: 7 into 8 is 1, 7 into 21 is 3, which makes 13.' He triumphantly exhibited his figures made with a stubby pencil on a bit of grimy paper:
7/28/13 7 2121 00
"The figures were impressive but Shea was not wholly convinced. 'There's a easy way o' proving that,' he declared. 'Ye add 13 seven times,' and he made his column of figures according to his own formula. Then, starting at the bottom of the 3 column, he reached the top with a total of 21 and climbed down the column of 1's, thus; '3, 6, 9, 12, 15, 18, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28.' 'Burke is right,' he announced with finality.
"This was Shea's exhibit:
13 13 13 13 13 1313 28
"'There is still some doubt in me mind,' said Kelly. 'Let me demonstrate in me own way. If ye multiply the 13 by 7 and get 28, then 13 is right.' He produced a bit of stubby pencil and a sheet of paper. '`Tis done is this way,' he said. '7 times 3 is 21; 7 times 1 is 7, which makes 28. `Tis thus shown that 13 is the right figure, and ye're both right. Would ye see the figures?'
"Kelly's feat in mathematics was displayed as follows;
13 7 21 7 28
"'There is no more argyment,' the three agreed, so they delivered thirteen tons of coal to each family."
Gardner then challenges the reader to find all triplets of three numbers - the first with 1 digit, the others having two digits - which can be used in place of 7, 13, and 28 in the story without changing any other word.
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