Puzzle of the day :ANSWER POSTED

Raj Lal

check the answer here[^]

Omit Needless Words - Strunk, William, Jr.

Raj Lal

have posted the solution here[^] see for yourself

Omit Needless Words - Strunk, William, Jr.

Nish Nishant

First Job : 3 years : 600, 000 - I agree. Second job, your calculations don't seem to be right.

Quartz... wrote:

First year: It would pay 90,000 + 95,000 = 185,000; Second year: 100,000 + 105,000 = 205,000; Third year: 110,000 + 115,000 = 225,000. Total = 615,000

Here's why. The 6 months hike of 5,000 is on the annual salary. So initially his base pay was 180K (90K for 6 months). After 6 months it becomes 185K (92.5K for the next 6 months). Every 6 months, his 6-monthly pay gets increased by 2,500. So here goes :- First year 90 + 92.5 = 182.5K Second year 95 + 97.5 = 192.5K Third Year 100 + 102.5 = 202.5K Total at the end of 3 years :- 575 K So I'd definitely go for Job # 1.

Regards, Nish

Nish’s thoughts on MFC, C++/CLI and .NET (my blog)
Currently working on C++/CLI in Action for Manning Publications. (*Sample chapter available online*)

Nish Nishant

Quartz... wrote:

have posted the solution here[^] see for yourself

I've replied to your solution, which I believe is not right. To make your solution right, the original puzzle has to be reworded.

Regards, Nish

Nish’s thoughts on MFC, C++/CLI and .NET (my blog)
Currently working on C++/CLI in Action for Manning Publications. (*Sample chapter available online*)

Raj Lal

Nishant Sivakumar wrote:

hike of 5,000 is on the annual salary

???? the question says with a guaranteed $5,000 raise every six months. why will it be on the annual salary ? as per your explaination , it needs to be $5,000 raise every 12 months, not 6 months then only you can count 2500 for 6 months -- modified at 19:52 Tuesday 16th January, 2007 -- modified at 19:53 Tuesday 16th January, 2007

Omit Needless Words - Strunk, William, Jr.

Wags

Hmmm... Many people would have read it as (for the second job), that the $5000 increments were in terms of yearly salary. Therefore the calculations for each year would be: First year: It would pay 180,000 * 0.5 + 185,000 * 0.5 = 182,500; Second year: 190,000 * 0.5 + 195,000 * 0.5 = 192,500; Third year: 200,000 * 0.5 + 205,000 * 0.5 = 202,500. Total = 577,500 Just because job 2 gives a raise (assumed to be an annual salary raise) doesn't mean you get that entire $5,000 in the remaining 6 months of the year: you would only get 6 months pro rata. (I know this is how it works with my pay. I wish it was calculated your way.) :)

Raj Lal

The question clearly states that $5000 increment every 6 months , how can you assume its not 5000, but 2500 for 6 months This is not at all a puzzle of "trick of words in the question"

Omit Needless Words - Strunk, William, Jr.

Wags

Nish beat me to it. I guess the puzzle was ambiguous: I've never heard of a raise working like that. (What's it a raise on if not the annual salary?!) No matter. Kept us (semi-)entertained for a bit. Thanks Quartz. (:beer: and then bed I think.)

Raj Lal

Nishant Sivakumar wrote:

the original puzzle has to be reworded

This is definetly not a "trick of words" puzzle, the question clearly stated that the increment is 5000, every 6 months

Omit Needless Words - Strunk, William, Jr.

Nish Nishant

Quartz... wrote:

the question says with a guaranteed $5,000 raise every six months. why will it be on the annual salary ?

All figures are mentioned in annual wage terms. The 180K is the annual salary. So a 5K hike means, it's a hike on the annual salary.

Quartz... wrote:

as per your explaination , it needs to be $5,000 raise every 12 months, not 6 months then only you can count 2500 for 6 months

No. The hike is given every 6 months, but the hike is applied on the annual salary. For example if my salary is 24K annually, I get 2K per month. Say at the end of the 3rd month my pay is revised to 30K annually. That's a hike of 6K. Now my monthly pay becomes 2.5K. That's how salaries are defined. So as I said, your solution is not right - and to make it right, you'd have to change your original question.

Regards, Nish

Nish’s thoughts on MFC, C++/CLI and .NET (my blog)
Currently working on C++/CLI in Action for Manning Publications. (*Sample chapter available online*)

Nish Nishant

Wags wrote:

Nish beat me to it. I guess the puzzle was ambiguous: I've never heard of a raise working like that. (What's it a raise on if not the annual salary?!) No matter. Kept us (semi-)entertained for a bit. Thanks Quartz.

I think he worded the question wrong.

Regards, Nish

Nish’s thoughts on MFC, C++/CLI and .NET (my blog)
Currently working on C++/CLI in Action for Manning Publications. (*Sample chapter available online*)

Nish Nishant

Quartz... wrote:

The question clearly states that $5000 increment every 6 months , how can you assume its not 5000, but 2500 for 6 months

$5000 increment every six months means that his annual salary is incremented by $5000. It does not mean his 6-monthly salary is incremented by $5000. The default salary is annual. So all salary hikes are also annual :-)

Regards, Nish

Nish’s thoughts on MFC, C++/CLI and .NET (my blog)
Currently working on C++/CLI in Action for Manning Publications. (*Sample chapter available online*)

Nish Nishant

Quartz... wrote:

This is definetly not a "trick of words" puzzle, the question clearly stated that the increment is 5000, every 6 months

Yes, and increments are always applied on the annual salary. Every six months, his annual pay is incremented by 5000.

Regards, Nish

Nish’s thoughts on MFC, C++/CLI and .NET (my blog)
Currently working on C++/CLI in Action for Manning Publications. (*Sample chapter available online*)

Member 96

Ahhh! Thanks for the link, that explains it.

Raj Lal

I am quite surprised by your argument. even when the question clearly says the its 5000 raise every 6 months i mean what does "EVERY 6 MONTHS" implies here you might want to look at this here[^]

Omit Needless Words - Strunk, William, Jr.

Raj Lal

How is that possible, $5000 increment every six months when you are "ACTUALLY" adding only 2500 every 6 months :)

Omit Needless Words - Strunk, William, Jr.

Raj Lal

Wags wrote:

I guess the puzzle was ambiguous

This is a classic puzzle "In Mathematical Puzzles of Sam Loyd (M. Gardner, Dover, 1959) " before anyone of us were even born Clickety[^]

Omit Needless Words - Strunk, William, Jr.

Nish Nishant

Quartz... wrote:

$5000 increment every six months

I think you and I can argue on this forever, and still disagree. To me, the above statement means that every 6 months, my salary will be hiked by $5000. And my salary is in annual terms (that's standard the world over).

Regards, Nish

Nish’s thoughts on MFC, C++/CLI and .NET (my blog)
Currently working on C++/CLI in Action for Manning Publications. (*Sample chapter available online*)

Nish Nishant

Quartz... wrote:

i mean what does "EVERY 6 MONTHS" implies here

It implies that he gets a hike every 6 months. It does not imply that the hike amount is applied over his next 6 months of pay.

Quartz... wrote:

you might want to look at this here[^]

I read that too. That's worded wrong too - similar to how you worded it. It won't stand a legal scrutiny. Anyway I think we've argued enough on this. I still stand by my original point. :)

Regards, Nish

Nish’s thoughts on MFC, C++/CLI and .NET (my blog)
Currently working on C++/CLI in Action for Manning Publications. (*Sample chapter available online*)

Raj Lal

ok so according to you if a company say they will pay you a hike of $100 every month You will expect to get actually $ (100/12) every month according to your logic.

Nishant Sivakumar wrote:

It won't stand a legal scrutiny

I suggest you ask your hr manager/account manager and confirm this, What it means when the company says RAISE of $5000 every 6 months. You arew actually confusing with %age increment which is in most companies annually so they say 10% increment ANNUALLY (implied that, its on annual salary because IT specifically says ANNUALLY) Even if the increment is 10% semi-annually or 6 monthly, that means it applies to semi annual income or 6 months income.

Omit Needless Words - Strunk, William, Jr.