A puzzle by Soviet science writer Yakov Perelman: Six carpenters and a cabinetmaker were hired to do a job. Each carpenter was paid 20 rubles, and the cabinetmaker was paid 3 rubles more than the average wage of the whole group. How much did the cabinetmaker make?
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We’re told that the cabinetmaker made 3 rubles more than the average wage of the seven together. So if we relieve him of 3 rubles he’ll be left with the average wage. What is that wage? Distribute the 3 rubles we’ve just taken from the cabinetmaker equally among the other six workers. Each will get half a ruble. So the average wage is 20.5 rubles, and the cabinetmaker got 23.5 rubles.
From Perelman’s 1924 book For Young Mathematicians, via the March-April 1993 issue of Quantum (“Kaleidoscope,” page 32).
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