"A teapot and a strainer cost thirty one dollars. If the teapot cost thirty dollars more than the strainer what is the price of each?"

This little brain teaser appeared in an advertisement posted on the wall of a borading area at an airport where I was waiting for a flight connection recently.

I’ve never been keen with math problems and the obvious answer, to me, is one dollar for the strainer and thirty dollars for the teapot. And that, of course, would be the wrong answer. I’ve been told that the correct answer is that the strainer is fifty cents and the teapot is thirty dollars and fifty cents, but I don’t see how it works. 

There was an older couple nearby in the waiting area, (he was a retired CPA and she a retired elementary school principal) and another woman passenger (a music student) discussing this math problem, how obvious the answer was and I had to speak up. 

"If the strainer is one dollar and the teapot is thirty dollars, which is thirty dollars more than the strainer, then it has to be thirty dollars and one dollar. Right?" I asked.

"No, son." The CPA says to me with a benevolent, slow student expression. The three of them then tried explaining to me how if the teapot cost thirty dollars more than the strainer, the strainer had to be fifty cents. Had to be. They kept emphasizing the word “more.” But I still wasn’t getting it. I had been sitting there with my laptop open reading a recently downloaded copy of NASCAR Racing Scene newspaper when I joined the teapot discussion. With a dismissive wave of her hand the school principal remarked. “Here you are with your computer open and running all this stuff and you can’t figure out this simple math problem? Tsk-tsk-tsk” She admonished. 

I don’t know what “all this stuff” referred to, but I decided not to tell her that I was reading a sports newspaper. I just told her that I was better with words than numbers.

They took another go at it with me and again slowly explained  how the teapot had to be thirty dollars more than the strainer. More being the operative word here.

Um-nope, still not getting it, sorry. I went back to my laptop while the three of them got into a discussion about how wonderful mathematics was. “Everything is mathematics. Speech, music, art, just everything in life is related to mathematics and isn’t it just all so yada-yada-wonderful? Blah-blah-blah” 

No, not to me it isn’t. Let’s just leave it at, I’m better with words.

Tuning them out for the moment I got back to my laptop and the NASCAR Cup “Chase For The Championship” article I had been reading. While their conversation was going on around me I distinctly heard the older gentlemen mention how they were on their way to Las Vegas. 

“Yup, gonna go down there to the desert and get some of that Vegas money.” The guy confidently remarked. As if that was his 401 retirement plan. Go to the desert once a quarter and withdraw some of that “Vegas money.”

There was a bit of frantic scrambling as they hurriedly gathered up their stuff and scurried across the aisle to join the last few passengers boarding for Las Vegas.

Let’s see now. In the top ten for the ”Chase For The Cup Championship” there are four Chevrolets, three Fords and three Dodges. No teapots or strainers at all. Nothing wrong with my math skills.

c-ya

  tom