Faulty Logic, a lesson from my late Grandpa
My mother's dad Mr Amod Vanker (now deceased) had a story that he loved telling. I have used it often in my presentations to illustrate the power of faulty logic.
In planning retail systems I often encounter the entrepreneur who flies by the seat of his pants. I hear him saying things like "we unloaded 3, 40 foot containers, with 3000 units in each, sold 34 dozen, and gave 10 packs to our agents in the Cape. Two boxes were returned and that leaves us with .......em..." .
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I then smile at the memory of a little boy sitting on the porch in Manderston with his Nana, waiting for the inevitable story, and the Nana goes..... (with a gleam in his eye)
Three friends eat at a restaurant and the bill comes to 27 rands. They split it evenly and each pay with a 10 rand note, expecting a rand change each. (3 X 9 = 27).
The owner of the place has no change, so he hands the waitor a 5 rand coin saying "give them this, tell them its a discount, they look like nice boys".
Our waitor realizes that the boys are not expecting a discount, so he pockets the 5 rand and gives each of the boys a rand from his pocket. They get the change they expected and leave.
The waitor has profitted by 2 rands.
If the boys spent 9 rands each (10 - 1) which totals 27 rands and the waitor made 2 rands in this deal. (27 + 2 = 29) .
Why is there one rand missing, and who has it?
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If anybody out there is interested in this, and wants to discuss the solution, send me mail and I will explain it to you, and show how this is relevant.
M Parak CAD Durban
http://www.cad.co.za/index.html
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In planning retail systems I often encounter the entrepreneur who flies by the seat of his pants. I hear him saying things like "we unloaded 3, 40 foot containers, with 3000 units in each, sold 34 dozen, and gave 10 packs to our agents in the Cape. Two boxes were returned and that leaves us with .......em..." .
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I then smile at the memory of a little boy sitting on the porch in Manderston with his Nana, waiting for the inevitable story, and the Nana goes..... (with a gleam in his eye)
Three friends eat at a restaurant and the bill comes to 27 rands. They split it evenly and each pay with a 10 rand note, expecting a rand change each. (3 X 9 = 27).
The owner of the place has no change, so he hands the waitor a 5 rand coin saying "give them this, tell them its a discount, they look like nice boys".
Our waitor realizes that the boys are not expecting a discount, so he pockets the 5 rand and gives each of the boys a rand from his pocket. They get the change they expected and leave.
The waitor has profitted by 2 rands.
If the boys spent 9 rands each (10 - 1) which totals 27 rands and the waitor made 2 rands in this deal. (27 + 2 = 29) .
Why is there one rand missing, and who has it?
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
If anybody out there is interested in this, and wants to discuss the solution, send me mail and I will explain it to you, and show how this is relevant.
M Parak CAD Durban
http://www.cad.co.za/index.html
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