# Someone explain this brainteaser
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-explain-this-brainteaser/129168
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [September 22, 2002, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-explain-this-brainteaser/129168 "2002-09-22T20:46:57Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Kang\_and\_Kodos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kang_and_Kodos)
#### Post date: [September 22, 2002, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-explain-this-brainteaser/129168/1 "2002-09-22T20:46:57Z")
In this Ripley’s Believe It or Not book I have, it asks this question:
If a bottle and cork cost $1.05 and the bottle costs $1.00 more than the cork, what would be the cost of the cork?
The answer given is 2.5 cents.
Huh?
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### Author:  [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)
#### Post date: [September 22, 2002, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-explain-this-brainteaser/129168/2 "2002-09-22T20:50:50Z")
What’s to explain? Start with the cork. It costs $0.025. Then just add a dollar to get what the bottle costs. $1.05.
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### Author:  [@Sigene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigene)
#### Post date: [September 22, 2002, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-explain-this-brainteaser/129168/3 "2002-09-22T20:51:11Z")
bottle = $1.025
cork = $0.025
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### Author:  [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)
#### Post date: [September 22, 2002, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-explain-this-brainteaser/129168/4 "2002-09-22T21:02:31Z")
Ok, hold on, see if this explains it better. Start with $1.05. You know the bottle costs $1 more than the cork so right away you subtract a $1 and are left with $0.05. Now just distribute the remaining 5 cents between the bottle and the cork (as to insure the bottle wont be less than a dollar more than the cork) and you are left with a 2.5 cent cork.
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### Author:  [@Sigene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigene)
#### Post date: [September 22, 2002, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-explain-this-brainteaser/129168/5 "2002-09-22T21:13:16Z")
classic two equations with two unknowns
bottle + cork = 1.05
bottle = cork +1.00
substitute (cork + 1.00) into first equation
(cork +1.00) + cork = 1.05
rearrange
2cork +1.00 =1.05
cork = (1.05-1.00)/2
cork = 0.025
bottle = 0.025 +1.00 see second equation
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### Author:  [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)
#### Post date: [September 22, 2002, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-explain-this-brainteaser/129168/6 "2002-09-22T21:17:12Z")
Bottle: $1.025
Cork: $0.025
Total: $1.05
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### Author:  [@Lamar\_Mundane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamar_Mundane)
#### Post date: [September 22, 2002, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-explain-this-brainteaser/129168/7 "2002-09-22T21:31:19Z")
Don’t worry about it, **K&K**. People will forget. Eventually.
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### Author:  [@Adium](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Adium)
#### Post date: [September 22, 2002, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-explain-this-brainteaser/129168/8 "2002-09-22T21:37:52Z")
The key here is “The bottle is $1 more”
Knowing that, you can say the remainder of the bottle and the cork combined is 5 cents.
Divide that in half gives you 2.5 cents. $1 more than 2.5 cents is $1.025 giving you the price of the bottle. the remainder is the price of the cork is whats left over 2.5 cents.
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### Author:  [@mmmiiikkkeee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mmmiiikkkeee)
#### Post date: [September 22, 2002, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-explain-this-brainteaser/129168/9 "2002-09-22T21:52:29Z")
It’s worded in a way to make you think you already have the price of the bottle; _total price is $1.05, the bottle costs $1 more than the cork_… which on the surface before thinking about it reads: “the bottle costs $1, so subtract that from $1.05 and the cork costs $0.05”. But that’s wrong of course when you try to add things back up - you aren’t given the price of either the bottle or the cork, just a comparison between the two. Work out the algebra and you come to the final answer as others have demonstrated.
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### Author:  [@cdhostage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cdhostage)
#### Post date: [September 22, 2002, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-explain-this-brainteaser/129168/10 "2002-09-22T22:28:25Z")
The cork could be worth anything between zero cents and 5 cents.
105 cent glass, 0 cent cork
101 cent glass, 4 cent cork
102.5 cent glass, 2.5 cent cork
100 cent glass, 5 cent cork
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### Author:  [@Lamar\_Mundane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamar_Mundane)
#### Post date: [September 22, 2002, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-explain-this-brainteaser/129168/11 "2002-09-22T22:36:12Z")
Cecil must be choking right now. This is the SDMB?
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### Author:  [@nineiron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nineiron)
#### Post date: [September 22, 2002, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-explain-this-brainteaser/129168/12 "2002-09-22T22:41:51Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by cdhostage \*
> \*\*The cork could be worth anything between zero cents and 5 cents.
> 105 cent glass, 0 cent cork
> 101 cent glass, 4 cent cork
> 102.5 cent glass, 2.5 cent cork
> 100 cent glass, 5 cent cork \*\*
Not to nitpick, but didn’t the original question say that the bottle costs $1 more than the cork? Your examples A, B, and D don’t fit this provision of the question.
Is it really that hard?
x = cost of cork
x + 100 (cents) = bottle
x + bottle = 105 cents
x + (x + 100) = 105
x + x + 100 = 105
2x + 100 = 105
2x = 5
x = 2.5 cents
Am I missing something that makes this difficult somehow?
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### Author:  [@Scarlett67](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scarlett67)
#### Post date: [September 22, 2002, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-explain-this-brainteaser/129168/13 "2002-09-22T23:51:19Z")
I’m just glad this wasn’t the one about the three guys, the fleabag hotel, and the shifty bellboy.
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### Author:  [@Pop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pop)
#### Post date: [September 23, 2002, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-explain-this-brainteaser/129168/14 "2002-09-23T00:45:03Z")
I think the thing that was bothering the OP was that we don’t (at present) have a half cent coin in the US, so how would you get a 2.5 cent cork?
Of course, you could say that corks were bought in volume, say, 100 corks for $2.50. That would resolve the quandry. Either that, or the puzzle was originally written using old British money where ha’pennies were commonly used.
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### Author:  [@Poloin99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Poloin99)
#### Post date: [September 23, 2002, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-explain-this-brainteaser/129168/15 "2002-09-23T02:12:24Z")
The cork could be worth anything between zero cents and 5 cents.
105 cent glass, 0 cent cork
101 cent glass, 4 cent cork
102.5 cent glass, 2.5 cent cork
100 cent glass, 5 cent cork
Could we use an inequality to represent this equation?
B\>C\
### Author:  [@mikan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mikan)
#### Post date: [September 23, 2002, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-explain-this-brainteaser/129168/16 "2002-09-23T02:13:50Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Scarlett67 \*
> \*\*I’m just glad this wasn’t the one about the three guys, the fleabag hotel, and the shifty bellboy. \*\*
These three guys walk into a hotel, and since they don’t have any money, they negotiate to pay their bill using bottles and corks … and so, what color was the bear?
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### Author:  [@Poloin99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Poloin99)
#### Post date: [September 23, 2002, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-explain-this-brainteaser/129168/17 "2002-09-23T02:15:37Z")
woops no =
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### Author:  [@pincushion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pincushion)
#### Post date: [September 23, 2002, 7:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-explain-this-brainteaser/129168/18 "2002-09-23T07:35:08Z")
This is a brainteaser?
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### Author:  [@Wikkit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wikkit)
#### Post date: [September 23, 2002, 8:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-explain-this-brainteaser/129168/19 "2002-09-23T08:08:48Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Lamar Mundane \*
> \*\*Don’t worry about it, **K&K**. People will forget. Eventually. \*\*
Maybe, but what about the two people who posted the wrong answer after the right one had been posted numerous times? How can you live that down?
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### Author:  [@Terminus\_Est](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terminus_Est)
#### Post date: [September 23, 2002, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-explain-this-brainteaser/129168/20 "2002-09-23T15:11:48Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by nineiron \*
> \*\*Am I missing something that makes this difficult somehow? \*\*
Ignorance. You’re missing the ignorance.
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