Telegraph journo can't do maths?

[Mr Pointy]

In an article triggered the PM's suggestion that everyone needs to do maths up to the age of 18 the Telegraph ran a piece with some maths questions, one of which was about splitting a restaurant bill:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/education-and-careers/...



Now I can't get the answer to the first one to agree with the published answer of £34.80, £31.40 & £25.40. For example I get Laura's share to be (25+(30/3))*1.12 which I make to be £39.20.

Can anyone explain which of us needs to go back to school?

[Dingu]

I think they have applied the 12% service charge to just the cost of the food and added the wine on top for some reason. That adds to £91.60 which is the total of the answers.

ETA: as for how they have then split it is anyone’s guess. I agree with you though.

Edited by Dingu on Thursday 5th January 11:33

[shih tzu faced]

Laura’s meal was £25 plus £10 for her share of the wine so that’s 35 notes before you even add the tip so she’s quids in. It all gets very complicated after that. Waiter can you hang on 45 minutes while I open up an Excel spreadsheet, cheers.

Meanwhile Bob ordered a salad??! Soft get who orders a bloody salad? Deserves to get fleeced just for that.

[john2443]

Surely the correct PH answer is that it depends which of them Bob is hoping to shag?

[andybebop]

The wine has not had the service charge applied.

[shih tzu faced]

john2443 said:

Surely the correct PH answer is that it depends which of them Bob is hoping to shag?

or in which order

[LaterLosers]

Any chance you can keep this dross to NPE please.

[Mr Pointy]

andybebop said:

The wine has not had the service charge applied.

Nope. 25*1.12 is £28 or £38 with a third share of the wine. Your maths is even worse than theirs.

[Dingu]

LaterLosers said:

Any chance you can keep this dross to NPE please.

A maths discussion?

[simon_harris]

If Bob paid for everything and let the girls share the wine, both of them!

[Dingu]

Mr Pointy said:

andybebop said:

The wine has not had the service charge applied.

Nope. 25*1.12 is £28 or £38 with a third share of the wine. Your maths is even worse than theirs.

The sum of the food multiplied by 1.12 and then plus £30 for the wine is the total of their answers for the respective bills.

[Byker28i]

The correct answer if friends and assuming they have lunch together more than once is just to get the bill and split it into 3.

Anything else is just too much hassle and makes you look a tightarse if you try to work out exactly what you owe

[shih tzu faced]

Dingu said:

LaterLosers said:

Any chance you can keep this dross to NPE please.

A maths discussion?

It just doesn’t add up

[InitialDave]

This reads like one of those oh-so-clever questions my mate's wife likes to share on Facebook, where there's always some kind of stupid gotcha or trick to prevent it being the logical answer.

In this case, letting the reader assume the service charge applies to the wine when it doesn't.

Very tiresome.

[deckster]

Surely any journalist would just give them £100 cash and ask for a blank receipt.

[MBVitoria]

InitialDave said:

This reads like one of those oh-so-clever questions my mate's wife likes to share on Facebook, where there's always some kind of stupid gotcha or trick to prevent it being the logical answer.

In this case, letting the reader assume the service charge applies to the wine when it doesn't.

Very tiresome.

Yep, this!

They share the wine so no question that they each pay £10 for that.
Likewise the cost of their individual meals is easy to establish.

Question is does the service charge apply to the entire bill or just the food and are they splitting that evenly, or pro-rated based on the value of their individual dish. No enough info in the question to answer this conclusively.

[bigandclever]

I can see how they've got to the 13.40 additional, not sure I agree with it

Wine
Bottle cost 30
With Service charge 30 * 1.12 = 33.60
Divide that total between 3 people for each person's wine contribution to the bill = 11.20

Food
25 + 18 + 12 = 55
With Service charge 55 * 1.12 = 61.60
Divide the service charge component (61.60 total minus 55 basic bill) between 3 people = 6.60 / 3 = 2.20

11.20 + 2.20 = the magic "£13.40 on top of their dish of choice"

[Dingu]

bigandclever said:

I can see how they've got to the 13.40 additional, not sure I agree with it

Wine
Bottle cost 30
With Service charge 30 * 1.12 = 33.60
Divide that total between 3 people for each person's wine contribution to the bill = 11.20

Food
25 + 18 + 12 = 55
With Service charge 55 * 1.12 = 61.60
Divide the service charge component (61.60 total minus 55 basic bill) between 3 people = 6.60 / 3 = 2.20

11.20 + 2.20 = the magic "£13.40 on top of their dish of choice"

They’ve got the amount for Laura wrong though as her amount is under £10 over the food cost. That is presumably where it has gone wrong. A typo between the 8 and 4 so it should be £38.40.

[cheesejunkie]

Byker28i said:

The correct answer if friends and assuming they have lunch together more than once is just to get the bill and split it into 3.

Anything else is just too much hassle and makes you look a tightarse if you try to work out exactly what you owe

Is the correct answer.

But playing fun and games, Laura would be getting the hairy eyeball but no comment from my wife's social circle for ordering the most expensive meal and expecting them to pay equally for it (she tells me some of what goes on on the girl's nights out). Bob would be getting a piss taking from my friends for eating a salad and we'd not care about who ordered what when it came to the bill.

[CypSIdders]

Byker28i said:

The correct answer if friends and assuming they have lunch together more than once is just to get the bill and split it into 3.

Anything else is just too much hassle and makes you look a tightarse if you try to work out exactly what you owe

This!

We have a, penny pinching, tightarse, friend who would do the maths for this, to the nearest fking penny, without fail.
She has been told, in no uncertain terms, that this is never going to happen again.
The bill will be divided by the number of diners, end of story, whether she likes it or not!