# Someone explain this brainteaser **URL:** \ **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:** 2
**Author:** ![PosterChild](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e274bd/32.png) [@PosterChild](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PosterChild)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2002, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-explain-this-brainteaser/129168/21 "2002-09-23T15:39:11Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Terminus Est \* > \*\*Ignorance. You’re missing the ignorance. \*\* Isn’t that what ignorance is? Ignorance = Bliss ---
**Author:** ![The\_Great\_Unwashed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_great_unwashed/32/4791_2.png) [@The\_Great\_Unwashed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Great_Unwashed)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2002, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-explain-this-brainteaser/129168/22 "2002-09-23T15:52:31Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by PosterChild \* > \*\*Isn’t that what ignorance is? > > Ignorance = Bliss …(1)\*\* Yeah? And what about those people who are twice as ignorant as they are happy (they know who they are)? **Ignorance = 2 \* BLISS** …(2) Solving (1) and (2) simultaneously gives **(Ignorance, Bliss) = (0, 0)** i.e. these people exist at the origin! That’s gotta mean something. Or not. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Great\_Unwashed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_great_unwashed/32/4791_2.png) [@The\_Great\_Unwashed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Great_Unwashed)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2002, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-explain-this-brainteaser/129168/23 "2002-09-23T15:55:32Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by PosterChild \* > \*\*Isn’t that what ignorance is? > > Ignorance = Bliss …(1)\*\* Yeah? And what about those people who are twice as ignorant as they are happy (they know who they are)? **Ignorance = 2 \* BLISS** …(2) Solving (1) and (2) simultaneously gives **(Ignorance, Bliss) = (0, 0)** i.e. these people exist only at the origin! That’s gotta mean something. Or not. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Great\_Unwashed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_great_unwashed/32/4791_2.png) [@The\_Great\_Unwashed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Great_Unwashed)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2002, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-explain-this-brainteaser/129168/24 "2002-09-23T15:58:08Z")
Ha! My first double post! I win! ---
**Author:** ![Philster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/13edae/32.png) [@Philster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Philster)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2002, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-explain-this-brainteaser/129168/25 "2002-09-23T16:14:44Z")
Wow, you folks can kill a party. You’re supposed to be ‘tricked’ into thinking the bottle is 1.00 and the cork is .05 but that makes the bottle only $.95 more expensive than the cork. Now that you see the bottle is only 95 cents more than the cork when laid out like this, it’s obvious why the answer is a little different than you first perceive. ---
**Author:** ![Methos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/96bed5/32.png) [@Methos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Methos)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2002, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-explain-this-brainteaser/129168/26 "2002-09-23T19:33:47Z")
It is exactly these kinds of questions that will forever turn me away from math 😛 ~Methos ---
**Author:** ![cdhostage](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c6cbf5/32.png) [@cdhostage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cdhostage)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2002, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-explain-this-brainteaser/129168/27 "2002-09-23T20:18:05Z")
OOOOOOPS! My bad! Right. two and a half cents for the cork. ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2002, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-explain-this-brainteaser/129168/28 "2002-09-23T20:28:13Z")
Ooh! Ooh! Me! I know this one! 42! ---
**Author:** ![Coilean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f6c823/32.png) [@Coilean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Coilean)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2002, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-explain-this-brainteaser/129168/29 "2002-09-23T21:40:56Z")
I’m shooting myself it the foot here but I’m inclined to agree with the two people who posted (and retracted!) the “wrong answer.” The original 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 “wrong answer”: The cork could be worth anything between zero cents and 5 cents. 105 cent glass, 0 cent cork 102.5 cent glass, 2.5 cent cork 101 cent glass, 4 cent cork 100 cent glass, 5 cent cork In which of the above cases does the bottle _not_ cost a dollar more than the cork. The original question doesn’t specify _exactly_ one dollar. That conclsion is based on pragmatic inference (A Horn scale IIRC) but I don’t think 0.025 is the full answer. What am I missing something? ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2002, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-explain-this-brainteaser/129168/30 "2002-09-23T21:47:13Z")
> [@](#): > > The cork could be worth anything between zero cents and 5 cents. > 105 cent glass, 0 cent cork > 102.5 cent glass, 2.5 cent cork > 101 cent glass, 4 cent cork > 100 cent glass, 5 cent cork > > In which of the above cases does the bottle not cost a dollar more than the cork[?] The original question doesn’t specify exactly one dollar. In the first, third and fourth cases, the bottle does not cost a dollar more than cork (it costs $1.05 more, 97c more and 95c more respectively). Of course you could read it a little more loosely and take it to mean “at least a dollar more”, but that would still rule out cases three and four. What I want to know is why this appeared in “Believe it or Not”. Are we meant to think that the bottle must cost $1.00 and the cork $0.05? If so, my brain certainly doesn’t work like that, and obviously nor do those of most of the other Dopers. ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2002, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-explain-this-brainteaser/129168/31 "2002-09-23T22:18:05Z")
Actually, rereading the original question, it does specify that the bottle costs **$1.00** more than the cork. As they are after the decimal point, those zeroes are significant figures, so it must mean exactly one dollar. r"yes, but how much does the whisky cost?"k ---
**Author:** ![Coilean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f6c823/32.png) [@Coilean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Coilean)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2002, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-explain-this-brainteaser/129168/32 "2002-09-23T22:23:18Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by r\_k \* > \*\* > > In the first, third and fourth cases, the bottle does not cost a dollar more than cork (it costs $1.05 more, 97c more and 95c more respectively). > > Of course you could read it a little more loosely and take it to mean “at least a dollar more”, but that would still rule out cases three and four. > > \*\* OK, I get one these :smack: for _real_ bad arithmetic but my point still stands. To re-work the wrong answer to read “between 1.025 and 1.05” is, as I see it, perfectly legit. In all cases the bottle does cost a dollar more than the cork. The conclusion that one dollar really means _exactly one_ is a superficial inference. Not that that’s bad thing, but it doesn’t allow you to rule out cases where the bottle costs more than dollar more. ::goes to by calculator:: ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2002, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-explain-this-brainteaser/129168/33 "2002-09-23T22:23:36Z")
Actually, rereading the original question, it does specify that the bottle costs **$1.00** more than the cork. As they are after the decimal point, those zeroes are significant figures, so it must mean exactly one dollar. r"yes, but how much does the whisky cost?"k ---
**Author:** ![Coilean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f6c823/32.png) [@Coilean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Coilean)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2002, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-explain-this-brainteaser/129168/34 "2002-09-23T22:43:25Z")
Hmmmm, looks like my point’s not standing as well as I thought. Whiskey’s on me. ---
**Author:** ![swiss\_toni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d2c977/32.png) [@swiss\_toni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/swiss_toni)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2002, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-explain-this-brainteaser/129168/35 "2002-09-24T01:03:24Z")
Let’s see if I can explain this one: The bottle, the cork and the bottle with it’s cork must be thought of as three seperate objects. Therefore it is true that the bottle with it’s cork cost 105 cents The bottle costs 102.5 cents The cork costs 2.5 cents And the difference between the bottle and the cork is 100 cents Incidentally, several of the posters are right in the contention that the cork could cost anything up to 5 cents. The only information that the question specifies is that the difference between the bottle and cork is 100 cents ---
**Author:** ![Naz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/e99b99/32.png) [@Naz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Naz)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2002, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-explain-this-brainteaser/129168/36 "2002-09-24T03:06:39Z")
Eh, who cares. Drink the stinking bottle and forget about the cost of the cork. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![BlackKnight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/eb8c5e/32.png) [@BlackKnight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlackKnight)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2002, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-explain-this-brainteaser/129168/37 "2002-09-24T03:50:31Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by mikan \* > \*\* > … and so, what color was the bear? \*\* And was it Catholic? ---
**Author:** ![antechinus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/fbc32d/32.png) [@antechinus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/antechinus)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2002, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-explain-this-brainteaser/129168/38 "2002-09-24T03:59:47Z")
Just wanted to add my 2.5 cents worth, but I don’t think it’s worth it. ---
**Author:** ![PosterChild](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e274bd/32.png) [@PosterChild](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PosterChild)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2002, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-explain-this-brainteaser/129168/39 "2002-09-24T04:35:50Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by BlackKnight \* > \*\*And was it Catholic? \*\* But what color was the **bottle** , or was it really just translucent and **looks** white? PC ---
**Author:** ![GopherGod72](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/f0a364/32.png) [@GopherGod72](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GopherGod72)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2002, 5:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-explain-this-brainteaser/129168/40 "2002-09-24T05:26:41Z")
What if you just plain suck at math and abstrac reasoning? Where does that leave me? I mean them. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-explain-this-brainteaser/129168.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-explain-this-brainteaser/129168.md?page=3)