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Drunk men at a bar party?

Seven men go to a bar to have a party. The first guy says he'll pay for 1/2 of all the drinks. The second guy says he'll pay for 1/3 of all the drinks. The third says he'll just pay for his own share, or 1/7 of all the drinks. Everybody drinks the same amount, except the one guy that is the designated driver, who doesn't have any drinks at all. Late into the night when the waiter gives them the final bill for $410, the men get into a drunken squabble over the bill because neither 3 or 7 divides into $410. Finally in exasperation the waiter says, "Look, I'm going to add an extra $10 to your bill so you guys can do your math!" This makes the drunken men happy because then the first guy pays $210, or 1/2 of the bill, the second guy pays $140, or 1/3 of the bill, and the 3rd guy pays $60, or 1/7 of the bill, as agreed. The total comes to $410, and so it turns out that the waiter was able to take off that extra $10 from the bill after all.

So, who got cheated?

1 Answer

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  • Brian
    Lv 7
    8 years ago
    Favorite Answer

    Since the designated driver doesn't have any drinks, there are

    only 6 men who end up drinking. Since these 6 each drink the

    same amount, the third man should be paying for 1/6 of all the

    drinks if he is only paying for his share. But since the others

    had agreed to the (1/2), (1/3), (1/7) plan the original intention

    was that the other 4 men, (or perhaps 3, if we leave out the

    non-drinker), were going to cover the remaining (1/42) of the bill.

    These 4 guys ended up paying nothing, the (1/7) guy ended

    up paying more than (1/7) of the $410 bill but less than the

    (1/6)*410 = $68.33 that his drinks actually cost, and the

    remaining 2 schmucks paid more than they should have

    by $5 and $3.33.

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