I saw this on discord and I feel like an idiot but I’m so confused.
*”Question for you guys If I borrow $50 from my mom and $50 from my dad to purchase an object worth $97. Since I would have $3 change I would give one to my mom and one to my dad and keep one my self
So I still owe my mom $49 and my dad $49 that means I owe $98 counting the one I have makes is $99 where did the other $1 go?”*
In: Mathematics
It’s simply a trick where they try to confuse you with how much money you get back. So you have 3 dollars back from your purchase. That 3 dollars has nothing to do with your debt though. Your total debt is 100 dollars and you payback 2 of it so you still owe 98. The dollar you have left is the difference between the price of the toy and the debt. I don’t know if explaining it with letters will clear it up or not, but I’m quite fond of turning word problems into algebra as it makes it sensible.
Debt to mom=m
Debt to dad=d
Price of toy=p
Change from purchase=c
Total debt= x
So the first bit goes like this
(m+d)-p=c
Then the next step is this
(m+d)-(c-1)=x
Then they ask the question
X+1=/=m+d
Or why doesn’t total debt plus one equal the original debt. The reason is because the two equations aren’t related. If you use the system of equations from above you can see that:
X+1=(m+d)-(c-1)+1
Because that’s the established relationship between x, m, d, and c.
The reason it’s confusing is because 3 + 97=100. So your brain is looking for a total of 100 when what youre really looking for is 98-1=97 the purchase price.
Tl;dr 49+49=98 and 98-1 is 97 which is the purchase price and how much the debt would equal if you paid back all 3 dollars. So 98 is the debt remaining after you pay the 2 dollars, so you would subtract the other dollar to get the price not add it back to get 100. It’s like a math tongue twister is why you’re struggling with it.
You are mixing up two different hings: what you owe your parents and what you have.
In the end you have an item worth $97 and $1 in money, but you also have $49 + $49 in debts.
$97
$1
-$49
-$49
—-
$0
You started out with zero assets, zero debts and zero money. Then you had zero assets, $100 in debts and $100 in cash and then you had $97 in assets $100 in debts and $3 in cash and in the end you had $ 97 in assets, $98 in debts and $1 in cash.
| start | getting a loan | buying the item|partial repayment of debt
—|—:|—-:|—-:|—:
Assets | $0 | $0 | $97| $97
Cash | $0 | $100 | $3| $1
Debt | $0 | -$100 | -$100| -$98
||||
Total| $0|$0|$0|$0|
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