If the book costs $1 plus one half its price, then $1 must be the other half. So the book costs 2 × $1, or $2.
@GraveUypo4 ай бұрын
that is the correct logic for this.
@Eduarodi4 ай бұрын
@@GraveUypo That's definitely how I found the answer.
@md-m4 ай бұрын
Exactly 💯
@harriehausenman86234 ай бұрын
Noice! 👍
@Lady-V4 ай бұрын
That actually helps a lot for me understanding this. Originally I was confused and got the wrong answer, because I was like "well you could set the price to anything you want, so telling me it's half the price +1 doesn't tell me much" but this clears that up.
@paul_andrews4 ай бұрын
I think people said it can't be answered because of recursion, rather than price vs cost. Starting with $1, the price becomes $1.50. But half of that is 0.75, so the price becomes $1.75. But half of that is 0.88, so it becomes $1.88. And then they give up.
@plotted_pant424 ай бұрын
1 + the sum of 1/(2^n) as n goes to infinity
@xereeto4 ай бұрын
An infinite number of mathematicians walk into a bar. The first says, I'll have one pint of beer please. The second says, I'll have half a pint of beer please. The third says, I'll have a quarter pint please. The fourth asks for 1/8th pint. Etc. The barman pours two pints and says "you guys really ought to know your limits"
@Stratelier4 ай бұрын
@@plotted_pant42 Which, luckily enough, converges at 2 (which is also the actual answer).
@plotted_pant424 ай бұрын
@@Stratelier Because of the semantic confusion, i have trouble determining whether or not this is a coincidence
@HoSza14 ай бұрын
@@xereetoAfter a good drink they all return to their infinite hotel, but the recepcionist says infinitely many new guests have arrived and everyone needs to move into a new room.
@calholli4 ай бұрын
Working backwards from the answer.. it's much easier to see what the question is actually asking. The answer is actually right there in the question. "one dollar plus half the cost" -- literally implies that the $1 is the 'other half of the cost.
@SeanKula4 ай бұрын
Thats a good way to look at it
@gmdFrame4 ай бұрын
I had the same thought! Honestly, internet just loves to argue over the dumbest things.
@diedoktor4 ай бұрын
Yeah I thought the price and cost were 2 different variables, and that the $1 was an additional fee not factored into the price, it's a poorly phrased question. im so used to hidden fees in capitalism I thought thats what it was
@charlesspringer47094 ай бұрын
But it is not correct. Price= sticker price. Cost = what you pay.
@calholli4 ай бұрын
@@charlesspringer4709 In a world with taxes.. You're right.
@FlyingFox864 ай бұрын
Wait, this video is over 8 minutes long. Really curious how that question is going to get stretched.
@OmnipotentO4 ай бұрын
Taking very slowly with weird long pauses between each sentence. I had to watch 1.5x
@FlyingFox864 ай бұрын
@@OmnipotentO You should have watched at 2x, 1.5 is the wrong answer.
@brownfamily18924 ай бұрын
@@FlyingFox86 LOL
@mattoucas8694 ай бұрын
@@FlyingFox86 haha, very clever
@ChessThingsOfficial4 ай бұрын
NEED THE 8 MINS 🤑🤑🤑🤑
@TheSomeq4 ай бұрын
Seen it in other wording in another soviet math puzzles book: "A brick weighs half a kilo and half a brick. How much does a brick weigh?". The puzzle itself must be even older than that, because someone had to know it before putting into the book.
@zekiz7743 ай бұрын
Yeah this is a much better wording.
@TripNBallsGaming3 ай бұрын
It seems like a lot of the controversy of these viral internet questions stems from them being poorly worded. I understood this one much better.
@donhartfield4 ай бұрын
I think you missed the biggest possibility of why people were choosing "the value cannot be determined". In your presented formula of b = 1 + b/2, you make the assumption that price and cost are not only interchangeable but are in fact equal to each other. Other people are seeing those as two different variables, meaning they are trying to solve the equation as c = 1 + p/2, where c is the calculated Cost of the book and p is the *known* Price of the book. In that situation, the problem does not present enough information to solve as both c and p are unknown values.
@michaeldeierhoi40963 ай бұрын
You just gave an example of someone who overthinks the problem!!
@Speak22wastaken3 ай бұрын
We are clearly meant to assume they are equal
@kingwitherasher46283 ай бұрын
It is so easy to determine that half of a book's price is equal to half of the damn book's price. The reason why the whole and half are in the equation is for you to be able to solve the damn problem. Those who make 2 different variables obviously forgot how and when should you use these variables. We have variable b to account for the WHOLE price, and the half of the price was mentioned so that would be the half of b. It is not an assumption made by this KZfaqr but it is an obvious rule in solving algebraic expressions that when you have a given and half a given then they'd of course correspond and be b and b/2
@recoilrob3243 ай бұрын
Some of this depends on your life experience. Many will just assume (remember the 'when you assume you make an ass out of you and me') that price and cost are the same thing...but anyone with business experience KNOWS that price and cost are NEVER the same thing so you have an unknown variable in the question that cannot be answered. You can't say that this thinking is wrong...because technically it is MORE correct than assuming that cost and price are equal despite them being synonyms in the dictionary.
@Speak22wastaken3 ай бұрын
@@recoilrob324 the price of a book is the cost of a book if you are buying it, sure for a corporation there’s a difference, shipping, tax, storage, and other things must be considered, but for a consumer it’s not two different things
@Locke99GS4 ай бұрын
Regarding the cost vs price thing, I would add that cost meaning price isn't just via usage or peculiarities of definition, but rather a matter of perspective. The cost of a book to create, and the cost for me to acquire it. The cost for me to acquire the already made book would be the price of the book. The book cost me $2. That was the cost _to me_ . Here, cost and price, which are themselves different things, come into alignment. The cost to me is the price of the book. From the perspective of the publisher, the cost will be different. (rights, price of printing, marketing, etc...) From the perspective of the printer, the cost will be different. (materials, labor, machinery, etc...) From the perspective of the writer, the cost will be different. (time, living expenses while writing, payables for research, failed marriage, etc...) etc...
@BeholderThe1st4 ай бұрын
The fact that cost and price are nuanced but that the seller intended a more generic meaning of the word means that it is a poorly worded question. The reader cannot, without context, be expected to ignore what they know about cost and price and reliably use the intended definition.
@ianmalcolm25524 ай бұрын
I would say in most places, the price is $2 but the cost to you is $2 + tax…
@ianmalcolm25524 ай бұрын
I respectfully disagree, as a retailer, cost is totally different than price. Price is what you sell it for and cost is what it costs you, the seller. You should not have to jump to a conclusion that cost means price to get the answer. Poorly written question.
@Steve_Stowers4 ай бұрын
But the question never uses "cost" as a noun, only as a verb.
@ianmalcolm25524 ай бұрын
That doesn’t matter, if you look at it from the sellers point, it costs them x amount and is priced at y. The verbiage should have used one term, cost, or not had cannot be determined as an option for the answer.
@BrBill4 ай бұрын
@@Steve_Stowers That's reaching. The question is specifically worded in a tricky way, and the noun and the verb versions of "cost" have multiple meanings.
@kmbbmj58574 ай бұрын
That's the fundamental problem with most of these "questions." They are a word trick rather than a math problem. And the solution relies on using the meaning the author wants you to use. To me, cost and price are two different things.
@fredrik36853 ай бұрын
The price is the buyers cost.
@shadeblackwolf15084 ай бұрын
The problem is that a book has three values attached that are commonly referred to as its cost. Its actual retail price, its MSRP (manufacturer suggested retail price), and its COGS (cost of goods sold, what they paid to acquire it). Without specifying which if these three prices is referred to, there is not enough information in the question.
@shadeblackwolf15083 ай бұрын
Illustrating this, the video simplifies the statement to x=1+x/2, but that only applies if we make the assumption that cost refers to its actual retail price, otherwise saying x=y in y=1+x/2 is not justified
@koibubbles33023 ай бұрын
If you speak English you should be able to understand what the question is trying to ask you. It’s not a trick question
@shadeblackwolf15083 ай бұрын
@@koibubbles3302 You're specifically trained in mathematics to look for situations where you do not have enough information.
@koibubbles33023 ай бұрын
@@shadeblackwolf1508 overinterpreting the wording of a question is not mathematical in nature
@koibubbles33023 ай бұрын
@@shadeblackwolf1508 you could just as easily argue that “it” wasn’t defined, and that this ambiguous entity prevents you from answering the question. You have to learn how to make reasonable assumptions, so long as you’re open to the possibility that the assumption you made was wrong. If you can’t do that, that’s on you. Not the question.
@TheLobsterCopter50003 ай бұрын
It can be true that the question came from an old textbook, AND that the question was written to be confusing. There's a reason it was written in this way, and not "What is 1 + 0.5*2". To confuse people.
@Varlenus2 ай бұрын
That's not what the people meant by confusing. They clearly stated that "the value cannot be determined".
@user-xq1bc5qx2pАй бұрын
Well, if you translate the original russian puzzle word for word it says "За книгу заплатили 1 рубль плюс ещё половину цены" which means "They paid 1 ruble plus another half of its price". So, even the author of the original puzzle meant it differently. I do think that this translation isn't only inaccurate but nonsensical, too.
@markstahl14644 ай бұрын
I think part of the problem is that the question sounds like nonsense. It could have something to do with the wording, alternating between price and cost. It almost makes it sound like those are two different things, like the cost to produce it versus the price to buy it.
@quigonkenny4 ай бұрын
Kind of dependent on how you define price and cost. To an end consumer, they're more or less the same thing. "The price is $2, so it costs me $2 to buy it." Not necessarily the case for someone along the chain of its manufacture. And that's just the way it's defined in my part of the US. I would absolutely believe that there are places in the English-speaking world where the local vernacular draws a hard line between "price" and "cost".
@aperinich4 ай бұрын
It reads perfectly well. The problem is that literacy is on the sharp decline.
@ianmalcolm25524 ай бұрын
It reads perfectly fine to a 3rd grader for the answer given, to a college educated CPA, it also reads fine, resulting in a different answer.
@aperinich4 ай бұрын
@@ianmalcolm2552 The 3rd grader has more common sense. The problem is wrote specifically, and the mixing up of definitions could only be done by someone in finance... Charlatans of logic.
@ianmalcolm25524 ай бұрын
@aperinich, do a search on “cost vs price” you’ll be enlightened.
@fun-damentals63544 ай бұрын
the true answer is that the statement is too ambigious and poorly worded
@user-xq1bc5qx2pАй бұрын
Based on how people are acting the statement is crystal clear without any ambiguity
@bkm834423 ай бұрын
If you have to resort to a dictionary and parsing the language of the question, you're probably going about it wrong.
@phoenix26344 ай бұрын
1. A book costs something. How much does the book cost? 2. A book costs (half its price). How much does the boom cost? 3. A book costs (half its price plus half its price). How much does the book cost? 4. A book costs (something plus half its price). How much does the book cost? 5. A book costs ($1 plus half its price). How much does the book cost? 6. A book costs ($2 off plus half its price). How much does the book cost? General form of the equation c = book costs something costs and price are synonyms. x = something c = x + c/2 Substituting for x, for 1. c = x 2. c = c/2 3. c = c/2 + c/2 4. c = x + c/2 5. c = 1 + c/2 6. c = -2 + c/2 We end up with absurdities if x is equal to or less than 0. Either c = c/2 (where x = 0) or the "discount" doubles. While it's a reasonable assumption that costs is a transitive verb, costs and price are synonyms, its not the only reasonable assumption. Other reasonable assumptions, are price is one part of how much a book costs, other parts (from the consumer POV) being taxes and fees, additional discounts. While the intended answer is $2, the way the problem is formed ignores basic realities of how commerce is conducted and what things add to or subtract from the price/cost of an item, or even that something could be on sale, i.e. 2 for 1 (1 item costs half its price), or a 50% off sale (half its price). There's simply not enough information to know if 1) $1 is in addition to half its (unknown) price; or 2) $1 is the cost/price of the book and half its price is the sales tax, resulting in $1.50; or 3) $1 plus half its price/cost (c = 1 + c/2), resulting in $2; or 4) the book costs $1, full stop, the additional half its price is meaningless, its not asking for the total cost, price + taxes + fees + discounts. Only the cost of the book. The above is no more overthinking it, than grammar lessons on transitive verbs and cost/price as synonyms to dismiss cost and price being two different things.
@soundsoflife95494 ай бұрын
It's free!
@michaeldeierhoi40963 ай бұрын
Someone has taken overthinking this problem to a level I didn't want to even consider as soon as I saw how long the comment was!! 🙄
@phoenix26343 ай бұрын
@@michaeldeierhoi4096it wasn't overthinking anymore than the videos overthinking to dismiss cost v. price. The short version: how much something costs includes, but is not limited to its price, taxes, discounts, fees, gratuities, and shipping. Does the book cost $1 (price) plus half its price (a 50% tax)? Does the book cost $1 (fee) plus half its price (a 50% discount)? Does cost = price? Does cost ≠ price? The only thing that you can say for certain is that the cost of the book is $1 more than half its (unknown) price.
@michaeldeierhoi40962 ай бұрын
@@ForExample2023 To each his own.
@Varlenus2 ай бұрын
"There's simply not enough information to know if ... $1 is in addition to half its (unknown) price" 1$ 'PLUS' half it's price. If plus does not mean addition for you, then maybe you should give up doing mathematics altogether. Also, discount plus half-price does not equal end-price.
@RevJR4 ай бұрын
The equation you used at the beginning is not correct. If the book cost $1 plus half its cost, then the problem should be written that way. It is not. ergo: cost = 1 + (price/2) Even using your own logic, let's say the book is priced at $10, the cost of the book is $6, ergo, the cost is still less than the price. Arbitrarily saying cost=price is no different to saying cost = 10 or price = 20 or any other arbitrary values. And even if we presume price and cost are interchangeable terms, it's not impossible to presume that the price is the price plus some additional amount (perhaps tax, shipping, or whatever) that amounts to half again the price, as presented in this example. If a book is priced/costed at $1 plus tax (some fraction of its price, arbitrarily half in the word problem), then the book costs $1.50 for the purposes of the word problem when read as printed. The entire problem could be disambiguated and solve the issue. There's no reason to assume cost = price when we're told cost = 1 + (price/2)
@baldwinplayz2684 ай бұрын
This is like complaining to a physics teacher why they aren't accounting for air resistance.
@RevJR4 ай бұрын
@@baldwinplayz268 No, the cost is the object, and the price is the subject, I think. They're functionally two different thing the way the sentence is written.
@skld-xm4 ай бұрын
the question is worded confusingly, but the original answer was meant to be 2 because it was meant to be interpreted as x = 1 + x/2. x is the actual price and its value is 1 + half of the actual price, which is also 1. his equation is not incorrect
@soundsoflife95494 ай бұрын
That's why the book is free!
@blakejhonshen27103 ай бұрын
He quite literally addresses this IN THE VIDEO. Did you even watch to the end? But regardless of that, I think this is an incredibly silly objection. Imagine someone said "The distance between X and Y is 12m, and the distance between Y and Z is 18m. Assuming X, Y, and Z all lie on a line with Y in the middle, what is the length between X and Z?" and someone responded by saying that the question is impossible because "distance" is not the same word as "length." Any sane person reading this would understand that they both mean the same thing in this context, and although someone COULD define them differently (e.g. straight-line distance versus geodesic length), they should be interpreted the same in this question.
@tjpprojects71922 ай бұрын
The book costs $1. Plus half of it's price. Cost = Price Cost of book = $1 1/2 cost = $0.5 Cost + 1/2 price = $1.5 Plus half it's price Half it's price = $0.75 Cost + 1/2 price = $2.25 Cost of book = $2.25 Cost + 1/2 price = $ 3.375 Cost + 1/2 price = $ 5.0625 Cost + 1/2 price = $ 7.59375 Etc Etc Cost = $ infinite
@yippee8570Ай бұрын
Thank you for demonstrating the absurdity of the question. It doesn't work logically in English without going round in circles
@Jim-pq9pm26 күн бұрын
There's no comma, so the phrase is 1 plus 1/2 the price is the cost. 2 is the only possible answer.
@paulobernardes983221 күн бұрын
The book costs $1 PLUS half of it's price. Cost = Price Cost of book = $1 + 1/2 price Cost = $1 + 1/2 price Price = $1+ 1/2 price Price - 1/2 price = $1 1/2 price = $1 Price = 2*$1 Price = $2. It must be hard not knowing how to read a simple question!
@bigolbearthejammydodger65274 ай бұрын
This question has 3 correct answers depending on your job/perspective - and THAT is why its interesting. Mathematician: 2 Accountant: 1.50 (and the .50 is TAX) Engineer/Coder: Edge Case - recursive error, potential infinite recursion. Its a genuinely interesting question, I was one of those folks that ticked the 'cannot be defined' choice (in the recent poll), because from an engineering and coding solution you are looking at a variable that is defined as a formula of itself: ie it is recursive, Ie the cost is approaching infinity - and a definition of a variable such as this is something to keep an eye out for as it is a known source of bugs. For me to get the same answer as a mathematician the question would have to specify the COST as being DIFFERENT from the ORIGINAL COST, ie the 2 variables would have to have different names. I completely understand the mathematicians perspective on this - Im just here to point out its not the only valid one. While all 3 jobs are reliant on maths, we all all interpret certain things differently - and that is correct for our different professions, because each profession comes with certain standards and expectations. In my career this is a prime example of something I would HAVE TO DOUBLE CHECK with the client, to make sure Im getting the correct formula and calculation, and in most real world cases - the answer would be 1.50 as intended by said client, because they exist in a world of business and accounts.
@TheJinjitsu4 ай бұрын
Well the coder should have studied more math because the recursion he would code, would be an infinite recursion but the "final" value would funnily enough be 2. It would be a geometric series which does equal to 2.
@bigolbearthejammydodger65274 ай бұрын
@@TheJinjitsu nope I see where your coming from but nope - look at it from a maths 'series' recursion yes, trends to 2... in code It trends to infinity, but much more importantly its an infinite recursion.. ie a 'crash',
@sprky7773 ай бұрын
If the price of the book is listed as $12 and the store is having a sale for $1+half listed price, that would be $7. The original question is ambiguous.
@reibee197219 күн бұрын
b = 1 + b/2 . . . 12 = 1 + 12/2 or 12 = 1 + 6 or 12 = 7 . . . That’s why the answer has to be 2. 2 = 1 + 2/2
@stevenbridge4 ай бұрын
I understand the answer in terms of how you are asking the question but I can also see how some answers were "the value cannot be determined". It you take the question to ask A book costs ($1 + (1/2Price of Book)) the price of the book may be $10, in which case the buyer is getting a deal by paying $6.00. In this case the value for the cost of the book could not be determined as asked by the question. I think the question could be considered semantically ambiguous.
@soulquesthealingmusic23073 ай бұрын
Exactly.
@henryjones211114 күн бұрын
I see it very much similar to someone throwing grams and pounds into the same question where you just know whatever you answer they'll say "sorry dumbass, you assumed earth at sealevel" these questions regardless of original context, when presented in the context of social media, can be assumed to be a trick question, in this case it was either "it's just a simple math question" or "you missed the obvious deviation of language" 50/50 odds of which one and 100% chance it's so someone can feel smarter than everyone who gave the answer deemed wrong.
@BytebroUK4 ай бұрын
Oh mate. I listened all the way through, but even after that we disagree on that 'indeterminate value' thing. I'm with those who say "Yup, the cost is $1 plus half the price, but as you've not specified the price, the end result is indeterminable." :)
@FlyingFox864 ай бұрын
But how can the price be anything else than $2? If it is anything else, then $1 wouldn't be half of it.
@BytebroUK4 ай бұрын
@@FlyingFox86 Nope, to me! The actual PRICE could be 2 cents. Then the COST would be $1 plus (2 cents)/2. I don't see that we have any way of knowing the 'answer' from the info given unless we accept his argument that the price == cost, which is not a given here. Happy to be shown wrong, but this one may run and run!
@FlyingFox864 ай бұрын
@@BytebroUK When you want to know the price of something in a shop, don't you ever use the phrase "how much does it cost?"
@keith67064 ай бұрын
@@FlyingFox86 I have rarely heard anyone in a store ever asking "What is the price of X?" instead of "What does X cost?". And when they ask the latter, no one misunderstands and instead gets into a pedantic lecture of the difference of "cost" versus "price". In fact, whenever someone does use "cost" that way, they almost always specify that they aren't using "cost" as a synonym for "price" because it's recognized that in common usage the two are synonyms. Anyone who smugly goes on about them being different in an everyday context is just being an ass.
@Misteribel4 ай бұрын
It says "half *its* price". Not "half *the*price". A subtle, but important difference. As a result, there's no unknown: it is written that $1 is one half of its price and you need to find the total price.
@smylesg4 ай бұрын
4:52 I have this book, but it cost more than $2.
@harriehausenman86234 ай бұрын
😆 Must be inflation or something
@gmdFrame4 ай бұрын
tbh i would buy one, i like really simple puzzles
@yippee85704 ай бұрын
My dad had it when I was a kid
@marksmadhousemetaphysicalm29384 ай бұрын
I bought this book when it was $2…now it’s $1…this seems more like a vocab test…I see less math here and more word play…
@Mialachucas2 ай бұрын
I thought this was a trick question and I thought it was one. The question literally says the book costs 1 dollar. (in present tense) and even though it says plus one half, that one half could be 66.6c + 33.3c = 1$.
@juanjosefarina4 ай бұрын
I'm having the problem that I'm thinking this in terms of a real-world situation or more like a developer mind-set, where a bookstore is selling a book with price X, as X / 2 + $1, where X is definitely not a value that can be determined because it could be anything. Your solution implies a "calculation of the starting price of a book" let's say, where my starting point is that "the book has already a price, but I'm selling it at half its price plus $1". The difference is something like: Value = 1 + Value / 2 Versus: NewValue = 1 + OldValue / 2 And I'm blaming the phrasing of the problem (?
@ianmalcolm25524 ай бұрын
Ask an accountant, they will say that you are absolutely correct 👍
@NeinStein4 ай бұрын
I'm also damaged from too many math lectures and started to find the limit to a series: b = 1 + 1/2 + 3/4 + 5/8 + ...
@ego-lay_atman-bay4 ай бұрын
I'm also damaged by programming all day. My brain thinks that an equals sign after (or before) a variable must mean that it's declaring the value of the variable, rather than it just being a regular boolean operation, where we have to figure out what b is.
@willythemailboy24 ай бұрын
My brain goes to overhearing a conversation, where you missed part of it. Person A: I bought the book at half price. Person B: Oh? I missed the sale, so I paid a dollar more than that. You: How much should I expect to pay for the book myself?
@crystal_clown4 ай бұрын
The problem with most coding syntax is that equality and assignment are conflated. In Java x=1 means x is assigned the value of 1. It does not assert equality between x and 1 merely declare it so.
@zekiz7743 ай бұрын
I read it from the view of the seller that bought a book for $1 and wants to resell it but wants to have a profit margin of 50%. So the answer would be $1.50 in this case
@johnnynick61792 ай бұрын
Yeah, well that's wrong... so there's that.
@GauravK_Ай бұрын
@@johnnynick6179💀
@OctavioAlvarez4 ай бұрын
There is another possible rationale for "the value cannot be determined"; not that I agree with it but here it goes: on one hand it says "the book costs $1" but it also says that "the book costs $1 plus half its price" which is a contradiction so the price is not properly stated. This is actually what happens when people reply $1.5 but for some reason they don't notice it. If they get to $1.5 it's because they took price=$1 as truth but if then they add the half of $1, which means they didn't notice that they were taking two contradicting truths at the same time. Source: it happened to me when I read this problem as a kid.
@iupetre13 күн бұрын
It is absolutely confusing wording. Confusing word problems existed then and it exists now. The book it came from is called Moscow PUZZLES. Of course it's meant to be confusing. The problem is presented as a math problem, but it's actually a logic problem.
@swxqt68262 ай бұрын
It’s a simple example of x = x/2 + 1 Subtract x/2 from both sides for x/2 = 1 and multiply both sides by 2 for x = 2.
@TheWerns4 ай бұрын
I don't think the discourse around this question is due to an inability to perform simple math, but rather upon the writer's incompetent (or purposefully devisive) word choice. The validity of your answer is dependent upon your interpretation of what the $1 means. My first interpretation was that the book's price was changing from an initial cost of $1 to a value of one half higher. I consider this to be a completely valid interpretation because that is how prices in the real world work - discounts and upcharges are based on the book's initial price, not the actual price. This would cause the equation to actually be n = i + i/2 where n is the new price and i is the initial price of $1, resulting in a new price of $1.50.
@silent5964 ай бұрын
I understood the wording just fine. And according to that poll, so did the majority of readers. So...😐
@Runegrem4 ай бұрын
The writer is neither incompetent nor writes in an ambiguous way. The word choice is fine. The validity of the answer does not depend on your interpretation of what the 1$ means. It's defined in the question as simply a part of the price. Anything else is just wrong. Your interpretation is wrong because it adds information that wasn't part of the question.
@what42pizza4 ай бұрын
Well here's my take if anyone is interested, the wording is flawed, but likely not intentionally. "Cost" does sometimes refer to how much the seller pays rather than how much the buyer pays, but it makes most sense to assume that "cost" and "price" are used interchangeably here, which makes the answer $2. If they're not being used interchangeably (leading to the equation c = 1 + 0.5p), neither the price nor cost can be determined. Although, if you add the condition cost < price, then cost is anything greater than $2
@MkFilipe24 ай бұрын
@@silent596 So you only understood one of the ways that can be interpreted, which happened to be the intended way but it's not the only one. Congratulations?
@relshi3 ай бұрын
$2, ez, you just lost a customer, and I saved 8 minutes of my time
@MiPointIs4 ай бұрын
It’s ridiculous to set a question that relies on duplicate interpretations of the words in the question. I would expect that an examiner would seek to ensure there was no ambiguity in a question rather than try to set a trap like this 👎
@matthewwriter95394 ай бұрын
How on Earth are people having problems with "An object costs X plus half it's price. What is its price?"
@Codisrocks4 ай бұрын
"I'm never going to use this"
@ChessThingsOfficial4 ай бұрын
Because people misinterpret it. Kinda like a reverse offer, where instead of 30% off, it is the cost (£1), plus 50% of the price (50p), or 50% on top. Obviously it is £2 but I'm surprised this reasoning wasn't covered. Also monetization etc.
@user2554 ай бұрын
Because, if cost and price means the same, then that might mean X + X/2, which would be 1.5 in this case. IE difference between the whole price vs just price. IE an object costs $1 and half of that ($0.5).
@jeffmartin54194 ай бұрын
We're so used to trick math questions on the internet that people are looking for the trick. If you're not expecting a trick, assuming price and cost are the same thing makes sense, but if you're looking for a trick, that's an obvious one.
@wjrasmussen6664 ай бұрын
I don't know how people are having problems with this.
@TomPVideo4 ай бұрын
There's probably a large capture of "just show me the answer" people in the "can't be determined" option.
@Wanarunna4 ай бұрын
In the absense of compelling reasons to take a contrary view, questions like this should be read with the assumption that the question provides sufficient information with which to answer it. Therefore if you have a choice as to how to interpret the question, you should choose the interpretation which allows the question to be answered, rather than the interpretation which introduces an unknown. This is especially true when the first interpretation involves plain language reather than strictly technical definitions. I will go further and say that it is impossible to reason with people who do not follow this rule.
@koori0494 ай бұрын
I disagree. The purpose of word problems like this is to exercise your problem solving skills. One important skill that you should have is determining whether you have enough information to get a reliable answer. Another is recognizing the assumptions that you make while analyzing a problem. Real life often gives you problems with out adequate information to solve them. It is good training to face similar situations where you have to admit ignorance or seek out more information before answering.
@isaac_marcus4 ай бұрын
Sometimes in higher education, questions will be left vague because the instructor wants to see if you understand the concept well enough to recognize the missing variable/consideration. Or even that a listed variable is irrelevant. If this problem were given as a short answer rather than multiple choice (which is also a reason to strongly consider the question was incomplete, since that's one of the few choices given), I would have probably written "assuming there are no taxes or fees on top of the listed price..."
@deezynar4 ай бұрын
I agree with you, Wanarunna. The two previous people who replied to you have never supervised a department of people and been held responsible for the work those people produce. Once a supervisor's ass has been chewed out for his crew's bad work, he begins to be much more careful with how he words the assignments he gives to his subordinates. This problem would get a very serious rewording before it was assigned to a subordinate.
@isaac_marcus4 ай бұрын
@@deezynar I have been a supervisor before. That's why I worded my response around education. This question would never be assigned to a subordinate because it doesn't make sense in a work setting to begin with...
@deezynar4 ай бұрын
@@isaac_marcus Yes, the question as posed in the video is not clear enough to be used in most environments outside of mathematical education. We agree on that. I tried to restate it to make it clearer, and I realized I couldn't come up with a better way of saying it. My inability bothers me more than the original question does, and that's not insignificant.
@thepyrrhonist61524 ай бұрын
tranlated from russian and you're assuming it was translated correctly? why would they use two different words to mean the same thing - concept (if i understand the argument right) . why not just use the same word? your math and answer is right given your assumption, but not if otherwise.
@derekpaul49674 ай бұрын
Your explanation of 'price' can't explain a half price sale. Quite often the cost of an item is not its price. Perhaps if you buy a 1$ chocolate bar there is a voucher inside for a book at half its price.
@axel36894 ай бұрын
Exactly, the mistake is in the question. If we go by this question, the correct answer is the value cannot be determined. The answer can be determined from the question given, i don't know why people are changing the question just to match their answer 😂
@marlupus8014 ай бұрын
I have to point out that in the question, the word "cost" is used as a verb in both instances. Not once does the question even reference the cost (noun) of the book so the argument of cost vs price makes even less sense. I solved this problem the same way you did but I did the times 2 first then subtracted B from both sides. Still gave me B=2.
@desgath4 ай бұрын
I'm glad I wasn't the only one confused about his little speech about the various meanings of 'cost' (the noun) when it doesn't even appear anywhere in the question.
@LordCLecter3 ай бұрын
Hallelujah, I found my peers. I was utterly shocked to see that NOBODY in the comment section seemed to have noticed that. But here we are shaking our heads at their ignorance and Presh's mistake. Greetings from a non-native speaker from 🇩🇪
@Txtholic_MOA04053 ай бұрын
you can simply solve that with a mathematical equation too! let the original cost be x so the cost is 1 dollar and half of its price that is 1+ 1/2 x= x multiplying it by 2 we get, 2+ x= 2x by further solving we can get x= 2 dollars. I usually solve these types of things by the equation method which makes things a lot easier than solving it by the riddle or comprehension method, as we can visualize the situation on a paper not virtually in our brain.
@wlan2463 ай бұрын
In the question, "price" is a noun, and "cost" is a verb. Referring to something's price (noun) entails the possessive form, but referring to what it costs (verb) doesn't. Writing it in this way, with the noun "price" to mean what something costs to purchase, and the verb "cost" to mean its purchase price, just sounds less stilted. Consider the alternatives: "The price of a book is $1 plus half its price. What is the price of the book?" "A book costs $1 plus half of how much it costs. How much does the book cost?" People don't repeat phrases like that, when speaking nor writing. They look for other words to convey the same meaning. Thus, the "cost vs. price" distraction is born.
@KelbPanthera3 ай бұрын
I can see where you're coming from with the idea that the terms "price" and "cost" can be used interchangeably but that's just a matter of your being a math and economics guy rather than an english guy. "Price" and "cost," even in the context of being viewed from an entirely consumer perspective, do not have precisely the same meaning. The price of a thing is the value placed on its sticker on the shelf. How much it costs is the price plus any miscelaneous taxes or fees on the purchase. Outside the US, most purchases will have those as the same value but within the US and with quite a number of intangible products they simply aren't. 2 may be the intended answer and one that's easy to come to but it's an answer that relies on taking the written portion of the process much less precisely than the mathematics. Price being a subset of cost, the answer is indeterminate without the price being given or at least information that can lead to it being given. Given that the question is not originally in english though, we can mark that down as a translation error; someone trying to avoid redundance in the writing without considering the mathematical implications of changing the word used that way.
@user-nw2uy8sg7m4 ай бұрын
Buying this book is like falling into a math rabbit hole-$1 plus half its price, and then half of that, and half of that... it's the book that keeps on costing!
@adamrussell6584 ай бұрын
And if you keep on adding half till infinity you never get to the cash register!
@Moonlite_Kitsune4 ай бұрын
sooo it costs a dollar plus 50 cents plus 25- hang on a minute, the book just costs 2 dollars again
@KlokJammer4 ай бұрын
@@adamrussell658 And yet, the cashier still takes your $2, hands you the receipt, and tells you to stop staring at the counter and let the person behind you make a purchase.
@zekiz7743 ай бұрын
@@Moonlite_Kitsuneno. It costs $1.50 in the first iteration $1.50+$1.50/2 in the second ... This already equals to $2.25 What I mean is that the price updates every time and the half of that gets added to the new price and so on. This is a very common pattern found in (procedural) programming. So it's really not far fetched to think of the problem like this when you have a programming background.
@pariterre4 ай бұрын
As a non-english speaker, I did not get that "A book costs $1" as its production cost, but as "A book sells at $1". Therefore I got heavily confused by the question as I was reading: "A book sells at $1 plus half its price. How much does it sells at". I fell in the "The value cannot be determined". Even with the equation you provided, I was like: "nope I disagree", until I understood that not only "to cost" can refer to "the production cost", but it was actually the most common interpretation! 😅
@Icemann894 ай бұрын
I read it this way: A book costs "the price" plus half of "the price". The wording made me read it in this way. Only when I did this: "A book costs: $1 plus half its price.", I was able to understand what the author of this puzzle meant.
@micah2936Ай бұрын
This is the easiest one yet. Let T be the price of the book. 1 + T/2 = T 1 = T - T/2 1 = T/2 2 = T The book is $2
@neobullseye14 ай бұрын
Assuming straight math, the answer is pretty obviously $2. X = X/2 + X/2 X = X/2 + 1 X/2 = 1 X = 1 + 1 X = 2 The thing is, that second step assumes that the book is being sold for its normal price. If a special deal is going on, it would be something like Y = X/2 + 1 And now we no longer have a way to determine X, and per extension no way to determine Y, at least not with the given information. If we say that the normal price of the book is 4$, for example, that means that the current price is Y = X/2 + 1 X = 4 X/2 = 2 Y = 2 + 1 Y = 3 TL;DR: If we assume a straight math question, the answer is 2. If we apply real world situations, the answer is "too little information." Which is the major downfall when trying to make a math question into a story; the moment you make it into a real-world situation, people are going to apply real-world logic to it.
@caleb535754 ай бұрын
If A=B+A and B=A+C, then which variables can have their values determined, if any.
@caleb535754 ай бұрын
Please make a video on this.
@Safetyswitch4 ай бұрын
a: -1/1 B: 0 C: opposite of A in fact, that works with literally any number
@caleb535754 ай бұрын
@@Safetyswitch Replace the ones in a's value with variables and you are 100% correct!😀
@FlyingFox864 ай бұрын
I don't think there is much of a video to be made about that. B=0 and A=-C Unless I'm missing something.
@YugoslavGamer4 ай бұрын
A-A=B+A-A` B=0` A+C=0` A=-C` C=-A
@essemque4 ай бұрын
I'm curious to know whether the Russian version uses the same word for price/cost or not!
@user-xq1bc5qx2pАй бұрын
"За книгу заплатили 1₽ плюс ещё половину цены"-"They paid 1₽ plus another half of its price." That is the true to the original translation
@giboneygiboney84474 ай бұрын
I like how you dont disprove the reasoning for getting the wrong answer. Its mainly just a misinterpretation of the problem, but nonetheless, in an 8 minute long video it should be discussed. If we assume the price is originally $1, and then the price is increased by 50%, the new price is $1.50. If you then think that it is continuously increased by 50%, the price would increase indefinitely. By saying the "book costs $1" the question confuses the reader. Whether it is intended or not is irrelevant.
@robertveith63834 ай бұрын
The question *does not state that!* The pertinent part of the problem states ""A book costs $1 plus half its price."
@NettoTakashi2 ай бұрын
From the Oxford English dictionary: price /prīs/ noun 1. The amount as of money or goods, asked for or given in exchange for something else. *2. The cost at which something is obtained.* _"believes that the price of success is hard work."_ 3. The cost of bribing someone. _"maintained that every person has a price."_ The price is, unambiguously, what the book costs. Anyone digging into technicalities about what the cost to the seller was, or sales tax that might have been added onto the price, or any number of other things that introduce ambiguity where it was CLEARLY not intended by the writer, is drastically overthinking things.
@HexenzirkelZuluhed4 ай бұрын
My answer is 2. Still: you could have checked the russian original to determine the intended meaning of the question. The supposed ambiguity probably does not exist there and can be discarded as an error of translation for those arguing for that.
@Derekloffin4 ай бұрын
Yeah, I'm going to have to disagree with this one. I would have let it slide if the D choice wasn't available, but it was, meaning you should be interpreting the problem much more strictly, and in this case the meaning is ambiguous and that itself makes it not determinable. Appealing to the dictionary is a fallacy as it isn't the true authority, it is a attempt to codify language, but not infallible, hence why we have many dictionaries with different definitions. Appealing to the book also fails as they too can be wrong (you've had many incorrect solution given in this vary channel to other problems, so deferring to the answer key is not proper). I can definitely give that $2 is a potential solution, but not the ONLY solution, therefore it is not determinable.
@GazilionPT2 ай бұрын
Regarding the difference between "price" and "cost": - For the *provider* of a product or service, "price" and "cost" should be different, with the former being bigger than the latter, because the difference between them is what we call "profit". - For the *acquirer* of a product or service, "price" and "cost" are exactly the same thing.
@64bitSniper4 ай бұрын
If the “plus half its cost” is considered a tax of 50%, the total price is $1.50. The book costs $1 plus tax, the tax is 50%. You would never calculate the 50% after adding the 50%.
@darkmoon55644 ай бұрын
If the tax is 50%, the base price is the same as the tax, therefore price cannot be 1.50
@cheetosnour.scratch-learn4 ай бұрын
0:14 easy, E (it is a value that approaches infinity over time)
@cheetosnour.scratch-learn4 ай бұрын
who liked?
@davidgracely71224 ай бұрын
The irritating thing about word problems is when you have to make an educated guess because of ambiguity in the wording that may or may not be deliberate. While I came up with the majority answer, to a businessman the difference between the cost of something and its price is the profit margin. If a merchant purchases something (the cost) for resale (the price) and wants to make a profit margin of 20%, you multiply the cost x 1.25. The formula for the establishing the selling price of something that costs a given amount is to multiply the cost x 1/(1-M). M is the profit margin expressed as a decimal. Thus, in the example given above, the cost is multiplied by (1/1-.2) = 1/.8 =10/8 = 5/4 =1.25. The profit margin is defined to be what percentage of the SELLING PRICE is your profit.
@LordCLecter3 ай бұрын
THE COST (as a noun) is never used in the riddle. "How much does it cost?" cost is also a verb here and therefore can't be confused with the cost of producing it. Just like: How much does it weigh? - > does weigh = verb What is its weight? - > weight = noun
@anatolydyatlov9634 ай бұрын
People arguing that it can't be determined because of the "cost vs price" problem are intellectually lazy - they refuse to engage with the problem by hiding behind unreasonable semantic issues
@MrFurious1764 ай бұрын
$1 can be interpreted as a fee based on this wording. For example, Ticket Master has a particular event on sale for half off. When you check out, there's TM's $1 fee + the sale price of the ticket. We don't know the non-sale price of the event, therefore we don't know what the final checkout price will be based on the question.
@McSmurfy4 ай бұрын
I thought it was $1.50 because the book cost is $1 + half its price (0.50), but see I'm wrong.
@marks.94484 ай бұрын
If its prices is 1 its prices isnt 1.5 because 1 is Not 1.5
@bigal67893 ай бұрын
I got the same answer as you, $1 + 50% = $1.50
@marks.94483 ай бұрын
it costs $2 because 1+x=y with x=0.5 y and y beeing the price whole price (=1+ price/2). so y-1=0.5 y --> 0.5 y = x = 1
@zekiz7743 ай бұрын
@@marks.9448but we assumed that $1 was it's base price and you have to pay an additional 50% of it's base price. Imagine it like you have a tax rate of 50%
@marks.94483 ай бұрын
@@zekiz774 if its price was $1 it would cost $1 and not $1 + 0.5 $1. and in civilised countries taxes are included in prices
@n3r0n34 ай бұрын
I just think the sentence was translated into English and we should check the Russian that is for sure more clear... up to then for me this question is non sensical. Still interesting to see how a mathematical approach handles it.
@PerfectHandProductionsАй бұрын
As is often the case, the language gets in the way of understanding the math problem. Price can mean sticker price, the original price of the book, while cost can mean the value the buyer pays after applying the math rules put in place. Imagine a book with an original sticker price of $10. If the bookstore had a sale in which the book "costs $1 plus half its price" that would come to $6. The prompt might be better phrased as "A book's price is $1 plus half its price."
@chickenpants4 ай бұрын
I got the two dollar answer. Having looked at the wording more closely, I believe that the indeterminable answer is correct. The way the different words are used could easily denote a difference between the words 'cost' and 'price' rather than those words being interchangeable.
@axel36894 ай бұрын
Finally someone with common sense.
@jinamshah51074 ай бұрын
Let the cost of the book be 'x' According to condition: x=1+0.5x 0.5x=1 x=2 Therefore the book costs 2 dollars.
@axel36894 ай бұрын
Half it's price not cost, therefore you cannot associate cost and price in the same variable.
@jinamshah51074 ай бұрын
@@axel3689 isn't cost and price the same thing?
@OctavioAlvarez4 ай бұрын
I learned it as a kid like this: a hare weighs 10 pounds plus half its weight. What is the hare's total weight? No price vs costs issue.
@acediamond53994 ай бұрын
Oh, I know this one. The hare is a butcher. He weighs MEAT.
@creeperstkoed62824 ай бұрын
It's not issue of people failing at math but rather an issue of communication I thought it was ment to be read as "A book cost $1. Plus half its value. Hiw much is the book?" From there the book is a dollar half a dollar is $0.50 there for its $1.50. It's like a really bad riddle
@sashime004 ай бұрын
there is no ambiguity given there is no "." or "," after the $1. I think it was made as a puzzle to confuse people when not in the context of mathematics.
@RevJR4 ай бұрын
@@sashime00 So if a book's cost is $1 plus a tax of 50%, how much is the book, and how can I not read that based on what's literally written out?
@robertveith63834 ай бұрын
* meant
@D-Allen2 ай бұрын
Ok, I get it...... I don't like it, but I get it.............. I originally read it as: A book costs a $1.00 (plus 1/2 its price). Apparently it is saying: A book costs ($1.00 plus 1/2 its price). So the $2.00 book is ($1.00 plus half its price ($1.00)).
@davek64154 ай бұрын
Taking the statement as originally worded, the correct equation is, as you say, b = 1 + b/2. b = 1 + b/2 => b - b/2 = 1 => 2b/2 - b/2 = 1 => (2b - b)/2 = 1 => b/2 = 1 => b = 2 Apart from the reason given, where 'cost' is interpreted to mean 'cost of production', the only other way I can think of to reach the conclusion that the cost cannot be determined is to assume that the statement is incomplete, and expand it to read "A book NOW costs $1 plus half its ORIGINAL price", which would make the current cost impossible to determine.
@nilsberger92984 ай бұрын
On first though I was duh easy 1,5$. But when you wrote down the formula: b=1+b/2 it all made sense and ofc its 2$.
@Emile.gorgonZola4 ай бұрын
1.5 not 1,5 Speak English
@Keane.D064 ай бұрын
@Emile.gorgonZola why are you so mad about a simple mistake like that 😭
@FlyingFox864 ай бұрын
Please ignore the commenter above and continue to use the decimal comma. I wish I was brave enough to stand up to the decimal point supremacists!
@angelapuzzle4 ай бұрын
@@FlyingFox86Decimal comma on top
@AlizarinRed4 ай бұрын
@@Emile.gorgonZolayou do realize in most of Europe they use , over .
@marc-andrepiche18094 ай бұрын
Textbooks have been known to provide incorrect answers. You can't refer to the book as the correct answer, especially in another language. You can't expect someone to know a question comes from a Russian book in order to solve it. The words of the question are the question, nothing else. I still think cost and price are two very distinct things. They are different words for a reason. And here the question is clearly written as : c = 1 + p/2. You can't just assume c = p, because it's a common usage. Common usage is not a mathematical truth.
@baldwinplayz2684 ай бұрын
Mathematical truth is only the result of common usage, language itself is only the result of common usage. If enough people agree on a mathematical concept it becomes true, take Euclid's 5 postulates, we can't prove they are true yet we assume they are because we agree on it. So, by your logic we can't just assume a triangle is 180 just because it's common usage, another point is that mathematical truth changes over time, because the truth is we don't know everything about math. 2000 years ago negative numbers were not a thing, not they are, we even have to square root of negative numbers, which are in the most literal sense, imaginary. In conclusion, math is only a collection of commonly used methods for humans to express logical thinking, math and logic has historically been dictated by human opinions and there is no reason why our current math is true mathematical truth and not just another mistake future generations will look down at us for.
@adarshs62004 ай бұрын
For a customer/ reader, the cost of the book is the price of the book. Overthinking basic stuff often leads to misery.
@egghead19694 ай бұрын
you are right. That is one of the logical fallacies, equivocation. no idea why all smart people in here get it wrong.
@herofire40924 ай бұрын
6:21. x = 1 + 0,5x 0,5x = 1 x = $2 What an interesting puzzle.
@risingdough80784 ай бұрын
To some people, cost and price are two different concepts. Cost is how much money is spent to produce something. Price is what that something sells for. One could argue that this problem is unsolvable at best, and ambiguous at worst.
@bruze86294 ай бұрын
I think the problem with so many people getting $1.5 is because its money, we immediately think “it was $1, but the store had to increased the price by 50%” which then comes out to $1.50, correct? I think because it’s money I automatically changed the wording for it in my head. I kept getting $1.5 when thinking about it myself until I saw someone who changed it to “a brick weighs 1 pound…” and then it made sense
@aperinich4 ай бұрын
It's a matter of people not understanding how to think, speak or read properly.
@lyntedrockley72954 ай бұрын
If this came from the Soviet Union, 'Price' and 'Cost' are definitely two different things. And it is definitely deliberately confusing.
@Meca-Mat2 ай бұрын
I thought the "cannot be determined" explanation was simply going to be that they thought we did not have enough information to find the correct answer. Boy was I here for a treat.
@robgrune32844 күн бұрын
In business, cost and price are not synonymous with each other. This 'problem' illustrates why people in business should never use academics in their businesses: too many problems resulting.
@feedbackzaloop4 ай бұрын
So the origin of confusion is most probably a translation inaccuracy? Because the original wording did not mention price, only cost (both verb and noun): За книгу заплатили 1 рубль и еще половину стоимости книги. Сколько стоит книга? For the book was paid 1 rouble and half of the book's cost more. How much does the book cost?
@henryjones211114 күн бұрын
The question takes advantage of poor translation and when posted on social media, can be assumed to be a trick question where you're going 50/50 answering with pure math or the "gotcha" semantics, either way the person sharing the question just wants to feel superior to the people who rolled the dice wrong.
@koibubbles33023 ай бұрын
Denial: $1.50 Anger: it can’t be solved Bargaining: let’s just test it to make sure Depression: tempted to just click on the video to find out Acceptance: $2
@DatFoamRailfannerCZ3 ай бұрын
Bro had to become matpat just to discover 1$ plus half of it (0.5) Is 1.5$
@KaiseruSoze4 ай бұрын
But to a consumer cost = price. The question would have been clear had "cost" been replaced with "cost to produce". Or if you had said, it had been marked up by 50%. The audience is the context.
@BaSYaVSkI4 ай бұрын
Due to the warding, you can not assume weather the cost is refereed from the customer's (who buys the book from the store) perspective or the seller's (who sells the book in their store). To the customer, it costs the book's price. To the store, it costs as much as they pay to the factory. Since it is translated from Russian, in English it becomes unclear, but reading in Russian you would more or less be certain that is it x = 1 + (1/2)x
@Misteribel4 ай бұрын
Is pretty clear in English too. The last part of the question refers to the cost, as does the first. There's no confusion. I think the only reason people pause is because they expect it's a trick question, while it's not.
@JohnCooper-gm6mn4 ай бұрын
But the book itself says the answer is $2, so it's not a translation issue.
@axel36894 ай бұрын
How are you associating price and cost as the same thing when it isnt even given in the question, the value cannot be determined is the right answer.
@NunoFerreiraX3 ай бұрын
Mathematics is about rigour and unambiguity. Therefore, if it’s a mathematics problem, we should not accept that price and cost can be used interchangeably. Going from having 28% to 22% on the right answer is an evolution, but in the wrong way. You should be rooting for rigour and unambiguity, not for the perpetuation of ambiguous wording of problems. This is not an English test, it’s a maths test.
@brucedavis91914 ай бұрын
Been watching this channel for years and i think we’ve reached a new low. Can we do some real math, please?
@robertloveless49384 ай бұрын
COST AND PRICE. I haggled and bought a candle holder that was priced at 20, for 8. It's price was NOT it's cost.
@marc-andrepiche18094 ай бұрын
Exactly !
@ganjiblobflankis65812 ай бұрын
I presume a lot of Americans are defaulting to adding sales tax to get $1.50. 50% sales tax is an unrealistic level, but is a common process. I looked at the problem and did the sum of infinite inverse powers of two to accidentally get the correct answer.
@Cookiedon153 ай бұрын
If a book costs $2 to make and it sold for the same amount it cost to produce, what was its price? A) $2 B) cost and price can not be the same C) Hey, you didn't include sales tax D) Obviously misleading due to inflation
@random-uploaders4 ай бұрын
Hope you have a good day, to those reading this
@maxwalsh99504 ай бұрын
You too!! :)
@random-uploaders4 ай бұрын
@@maxwalsh9950 thanks!
@isobar58574 ай бұрын
This didn't solve anything, the question is ambiguous and more a problem of semantics. If cost is defined as the same value as price then the answer must be 1.5.
@reibee197219 күн бұрын
At some point you should remake this, but word it like this: A book costs $1 plus half its cost. How much does it cost?
@wreckimАй бұрын
I love this problem, because it's actually something I can understand. Somewhat (let's be honest). I answered that it was not determinable. However, I did ask CGPT the question as worded, and the answer is the same=$2. Then I asked AI this question: What if I am selling three books. Book A, is priced at $2, book B, is priced at $3, and book C is priced at $10. My store sells all books for $1, plus 1/2 their price. What is the price of book C ? CGPT: We know the original price of book C is $10. Thus, 𝑃=10 Therefore, the price of book C in the store is $6. This is why I don't understand how you can say the book is $2. My logic can't get around this, and I'm pretty sure that my thinking is faulty. I'm using my best logic to determine how I must be wrong. But how am I wrong? How is AI doing the math as I think it could be computed, if I am wrong?
@michaellinahan77404 ай бұрын
this type of problem where it is the semantics of terms used in the definition of the question is something I fought hard to remove as a 45 year veteran of teaching Y12 maths methods. Students should be tested on their ability to successfully recall theories and be able to apply or modify their approach to solve given the problem and NOT be a function of the decoding of the awkward use of the language.
@thomastsunami34224 ай бұрын
It does NOT say One half of a book costs $1.. it says it cost $1, and then adding half its price which is .50 cents. It is like saying what is $1 plus half again. If you want it to equate to $2 then reword the question.
@phillipsusi17914 ай бұрын
It does not say it costs $1. It says it costs $1 PLUS half the cost.
@thomastsunami34224 ай бұрын
@@phillipsusi1791 "A book costs $1 ....plus half its price." A book costs one dollar Period. Plus half its' price. Its' Price is one dollar Period and half again is added to it on the secondary market, bringing its' cost to $1.50. They need to stop trying to be clever, and rewrite the question.
@thomastsunami34224 ай бұрын
@@phillipsusi1791 Wrong. It says "A Book costs $1." which is the price of the book.. and then on ReSale, "Plus half its' Price", which is .50 cents
@phillipsusi17914 ай бұрын
@@thomastsunami3422 Reading comprehension for the win. At 9 seconds into the video, the text is plainly readable. It does NOT say "A book costs $1.". It says "A book costs $1 plus half its price". You can't just ignore the latter half of that sentence and pretend that there is a period after the $1. There is no mention of "resale". You are making up the idea that it is being sold as used for less than the original price out of whole cloth.
@thomastsunami34224 ай бұрын
@@phillipsusi1791 Correct, It costs $1 ... Plus Half its' price.. to figure out what Half its price is, we first must take what they gave the price of the book as, which is $1. So if you wish to contend that half it's price is $1, it would read, "A book costs double $1." or a "Half the price of a book is $1. What is the price of the book.", The onus it on the one wishing to convey the information. KISS. How it reads, the value, regardless of how the composer of the question wished you to understand it, is $1.50. It is not posed as Fractal problem.
@Misteribel4 ай бұрын
The Moscow Puzzles! I knew I've seen this puzzle before. I still own it. Lovely book, an absolute classic. Highly recommended. 😊
@MGhobbyroomАй бұрын
The length of a stick is 1 yard plus half its length. How long is the stick? 1 yard? 1.5 yards? 2 yards? Not enough info? Come on people, only 61% solved this?!
@joncross92644 ай бұрын
This is a very bad question in how misleading it is. One could argue that the interpretation of the riddle (because that is where this belongs) is that the books price is being stated as $1. Nobody in your life will speak so cryptically, so it is easy to take this at face value as the price being a dollar plus half the cost. This is more gotcha riddle than genuine qiestion.
@stuchly14 ай бұрын
It's not misleading at all.
@Lordaizo3514 ай бұрын
How exactly isnt misleading? @@stuchly1
@oscarespinosa92644 ай бұрын
To prevent confusions, the problem should be written like this: "The price of a book is $ 1 plus half its price. How much is it?"
@deathdrop4 ай бұрын
That is no different
@therealzilch4 ай бұрын
Sorry, I don't see a problem here. As others have said, it's obviously $2.
@henryjones211114 күн бұрын
the problem is that if you are approaching this from a mindset of mathematical variables, you don't just assume different terms are interchangeable, why use cost and price in the same question if they mean the same thing? It is an entirely fair assumption that they are in some manner different. This is very similar to using pounds and grams in the same question and assuming that people will just measure pounds as on earth at sea level. Provided the person is fluent in imperial and metric of course. This is a trick question, it is an intentional wording and anyone looking at it briefly and assigning cost and price as different variables will quickly answer "nice try, that's a trick question that can't be answered because the right answer of "it can't be determined" will be reported as the wrong answer because someone pulls out a dictionary and starts going on about synonyms. It is a no win question translated to run on assumptions that we can no longer make with social media questions that are all about the "gotcha, I'm smarter than you".
@ssolomon9994 ай бұрын
If this were explicitly presented in the context of “arithmetic problems” then it’d be unambiguous. It would also be unambiguous if it were phrased “the price of a book is $1 plus half its price, what is that price?” But when it’s presented as a “logic problem,” I don’t think you can simply assert “cost == price” in your solution, because the specific word choice in a logic problem is usually material to the solve.
@ssolomon9994 ай бұрын
plz edit “when it’s presented as…” to “if a reader is thinking about it as…” - I’m not saying “you presented it wrong!”
@originellerNickname4 ай бұрын
Okay, so obviously the answer is supposed to be 2$ - but I have an explanation that would explain why one could vote for the "cannot be determined" answer: infinite recursion. The formula b = 1 + b/2 implies that both "b" are the same. But one could argue that, to add half to the cost, one must first calculate the cost. So, in this case you would expand it like this: b = 1 + b/2 b = 1 + ( 1 + b/2) / 2 b = 1 + ( 1 + ( 1 + b/2 ) / 2) / 2 ... and so on. This is obviously unbounded and thus cannot be determined.
@originellerNickname4 ай бұрын
Okay, when thinking one step further, that is not "obviously unbounded", but just the geometric series.. yielding 2$...
@youssefchihab16134 ай бұрын
@@originellerNickname You can literally simplify it by doing the equation in reverse then solve for be normally though
@gmdFrame4 ай бұрын
@@originellerNickname my favourite! "You used the wrong formula, but somehow got the correct answer" XD
@obobroАй бұрын
Why not asking directly: b = b/2 + 1 lets see how many would give the right answer. Not a math problem.
@Peter_1986Ай бұрын
Problems in real life typically become word problems; math is just a way to summarise those word problem scenarios in a way that allows them to be calculated.
@tyeguy74 ай бұрын
Ignoring the whole argument of price and cost not being the same thing, from how you stated it, I immediately jumped to the conclusion of $1.50. Why? The definition of the word “it/its” is “used to refer to a thing previously mentioned or easily identified.” according to Google (I cannot state a source, as google did not supply one, though I checked the Merriam Webster definition and it is very similar). In this case, the thing previously mentioned was “a book costs 1 dollar” and then, when the sentence stated “plus half ITS price” I was led to the conclusion that the book costs $1.50. I’m not going to be like some people now and tell you about how you suck or anything, because I’m not writing this because I think I’m better than everybody, I just have too much time on my hands lol- have a good day
@ChrisJones-hs6nj4 ай бұрын
Retailers make 100% mark up. That 100% mark up is half the cost. If it cost 100% + 100% then it costs 200%.