# 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:** 8\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![t-keela](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a3d4f5/32.png) [@t-keela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/t-keela)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2002, 5:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-explain-this-brainteaser/129168/41 "2002-09-24T05:37:57Z")
Somebody shoot me…my lord, I guess this really was a brainteaser after all! BTW What the hell can you buy in a bottle w/a cork for a 1.05 ? (an empty bottle and cork I guess) ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2002, 5:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-explain-this-brainteaser/129168/42 "2002-09-24T05:46:21Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by r\_k \* > \*\*What I want to know is why this appeared in “Believe it or Not”. \*\* Good question. It would probably be good in Marilyn vos Savant’s column, though. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Find\_Friends](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c37758/32.png) [@Find\_Friends](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Find_Friends)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2002, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-explain-this-brainteaser/129168/43 "2002-09-24T14:02:24Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Terminus Est \* > \*\* > Ignorance. You’re missing the ignorance. \*\* From a late Fifties or early Sixties Peanuts Cartoon: Lucy (to something Linus said): “Your Ignorance is appaling.” Linus: “Most ignorance is.” ---
**Author:** ![Danalan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/76d3ee/32.png) [@Danalan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Danalan)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2002, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-explain-this-brainteaser/129168/44 "2002-09-24T20:12:40Z")
Haven’t you ever heard of the free market? The fact that the bottle and cork are priced at $1.05 has only partial bearing on the price of a bottle, or the price of a cork. In fact, if I were to sell you a bottle, separately, I may have a wholesale problem; e.g. if I can only buy bottles and corks in combination, I would have a leftover cork – could be a storage problem, certainly an inventory problem. So, if you want just a bottle, I might charge $1.07 (or $7.07, or whatever I want, because I don’t really want to sell just bottles). Which would make the price of a cork $0.07. 0r, if you want just a cork, I might have to charge $0.23, to cover my handling. Then again, I may get the bottles and corks from different suppliers, in which case I am providing a premium – bottles combined with corks. I could charge the $1.05 for the combination, while bottles alone may go for $1.01 (thus corks for $0.01). This problem relys upon a false reality, a reality of pure mathematics, without real people to mess things up. Further evidence of this false reality is the impossible amount in it’s purported solution: two and a half cents. Real people would price the bottle at $1.09, and pocket the extra $0.04 cents. Maybe that’s why it’s in Ripleys… ---
**Author:** ![Debaser](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/3da27b/32.png) [@Debaser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Debaser)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2002, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-explain-this-brainteaser/129168/45 "2002-09-24T21:05:58Z")
Stick a cork in it! 😃 I counldn’t resist. Good riddle though! It tricked me up the first time I read it. ---
**Author:** ![Terminus\_Est](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terminus_est/32/3087_2.png) [@Terminus\_Est](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terminus_Est)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2002, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-explain-this-brainteaser/129168/46 "2002-09-24T21:15:15Z")
We made Threadspotting - Believe It or Not! ---
**Author:** ![Debaser](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/3da27b/32.png) [@Debaser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Debaser)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2002, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-explain-this-brainteaser/129168/47 "2002-09-25T14:11:27Z")
Threadspotting? ---
**Author:** ![DocHopper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ac91a4/32.png) [@DocHopper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocHopper)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2002, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-explain-this-brainteaser/129168/48 "2002-09-25T14:51:34Z")
Did anyone else ever read [this analysis](http://www.merrycoz.org/papers/online/onlin.htm#five) of an 1855 “flame war” over a math problem in a magazine which was considered a precursor to online message boards? (scroll down a page) Heh, the more things change, the more they stay the same. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-explain-this-brainteaser/129168.md?page=2)