a simple math question that many people will not answer correctly

8 bucks in your pocket.

Buy a bird for 8 bucks - $0 in your pocket.

Sell bird for 9 bucks - $9 in your pocket

PROFIT = $1

Uses the $9 he now has earned and borrows $1 from his dad ($10 to purchase bird).

Sells bird for $11 and gives the $1 back to his dad.

Now he has $10 in his pocket.

$10 - 8 = $2 profit.

 

under your scenerio he actually made a dollar, not broke even.

but the answer should be 2

 

He didn't lose a dollar the 2nd time because that's a different transaction already. A transaction consists of buying and selling... or if you'd rather... selling then buying. So he already bought ($8) and then sold ($9) so that transaction is over. And in that first transaction he made $1. His second transaction started with him buying ($10) and selling ($11) and he made $1 in that transaction too. Overall he made $2.
If you like, you can mix up the buying and selling and it still works. Let's say he bought the original one ($8) but didn't sell it until the end for $11. He made $3 on that transaction. Then he bought another one for $10 but this time he was only able to sell for $9. So this time he lost money, $1. Overall he still made $2.
Remember that the transactions have to pair. You can't use him buying for $10 in two different transactions.

 

i don't even know how to explain the errant answers to the chicken problem anymore, there are some crazy answers out there. i think people are just conflating the net result in a given transaction with the relative change, and using relative changes to get a net result.

manny's $25 hotel price is good. but still a deception. the men have spent 27 dollars; the room charged 25 and the clerk pocketed 2 of the 5 dollar change for a total of 27. there is no missing money. 27 + 2 would mean the guys spent 29 dollars total, but they didn't.

 

What if he didn't have any money before the first transaction? Would the first transaction be classified as debt? Would that change things as far as profit is concerned?

 

How much money did he make? What is he.....a U. S. Mint?

 

what he starts with has no bearing on the net balance, unless the guy is like 30 dollars in debt and is still in debt by the end, in which case its just a matter of diction to say 'how much did he make' since he didn't MAKE anything, he just decreased his debt by 2 dollars.

 

what does he do for a living?

 

he doesn't lose a dollar when he buys the bird back for 10. it doesn't erase the previous transaction. he loses 9 because he's spending 10 - the dollar he made previously. then when he sells for 11, he is up 2.

 

He lost a dollar by trying to time the market.

Buy and hold.

$11 seems pretty steep for a chicken. Is there more to this story?

 

the chicken actually just merged with another chicken, so he sold to soon.

 

... the easiest way to do this...

just act it out.

Go make some fake bill and a representation of the chicken. This is not that hard.... i think people are just thinking too hard after reading the title of this thread.

Answer is $2, disregarding the cost of opportunity / time / effort...

 

People are making a big deal out of this simply because pirc1 said it was hard. I bet if you asked most people normally without getting them all paranoid about being wrong, they'd actually get it right.

 

This thread must've gone back in time to when zero and negative numbers weren't invented yet.

 

Somebody start a Riddle Thread, these things get me thinking. Also fun.

 

That's highly disappointing

 

Me and my girlfriend sitting on the bed.........

I started with $4...bought my phone for $2, sold it for $3, etc.

I wound up with $6.

 

Another easy one that I've heard a couple of people get wrong.

Mom and Dad have four daughters, and each daughter has one brother. How many people are in the family?

 

Jack and Jill went up the hill, each with a buck and a quarter.
Jill came down with two fifty, that F'in w****. OH!