Early one morning Hal, the owner of a hardware store, sells a mailbox for $25 to Courtney that cost him $20 wholesale. Courtney pays with a $100 bill and Hal discovers he doesn’t have enough change. He runs to the jewelry shop next door, where Jack, the owner, gives him change in exchange for the $100. Later that afternoon, Jack discovers the $100 bill is a counterfeit and Hal pays him $100 to make it right.
The total loss was $95. -$20 = The wholesale cost of the mailbox $100 = The money from Jack -$75 = The change paid to Courtney -$100 = To pay Jack back -$20 + $100 – $75 – $100 = -$95
It’s easy to think Hal lost $195 but that fails to account for the $100 used to make the change, which came from Jack, not Hal. Jack paid $100 in exchange for a worthless piece of paper, so the $100 was initially Jack’s loss. Hal had made a $5 profit until Jack’s discovery. If you guessed $100, that’s arguably correct, but not making $5 in profit isn’t a loss in the strictest sense of the word.
I have wood but no bark, And leaves that don’t fall, I am made up of branches, and come in sizes of all.
I am completely devoured many times, over and over by a worm of a kind. If you want to know the answer of mine, look for the secret that I’ve stored inside.
Every dawn begins with me At dusk I’ll be the first you see And daybreak couldn’t come without What midday centers all about Daises grow from me, I’m told And when I come, I end all cold But in the sun I won’t be found Yet still, each day I’ll be around
Select the number that is midway between the lowest number and the highest number. Which number is midway between that number and the number that is nearest the highest number?