My son asked me the answer to this question....but I have no idea....
You, me and our best friend go to a restaurant for a meal, the meal costs £10 each, when finished, we hand the waiter £30, he goes off to run it through the till but the manager stops him and says, give the party £5 back, as the meal for the three of them tonight is £25.......
So the waiter comes back to us, after putting £2 of the £5 in his own pocket (naughty man!) and gives us a £1 each back.
This means we each paid £9 for our meal....three times £9 is £27....the waiter kept £2....where did the other £1 go?????
Thanks for the explanation......I really am not that dumb.....I totally get the 8.3333333 thing......but the point I am making is that 'physically' I gave £10 and got £1 back.....so I paid £9.....I realise its one of those maths conundrums....but I needed a way to explain it to my son.....
Ahh there in lies the crux - you thought you had paid £30 (£10 each) but because of the rebate, then you ended up paying £8.33 and if the waiter had kept £3 then it would have been £9....
The £2 that the waiter has, should be subtracted - not added on:
The meal cost you £27 (£10 less the £1 that you get back), less the £2 that the waiter kept = £25 that the meal actually cost.
Basically the meal cost £25. Everyone paid £9 each making £27, meaning that the waiter got a £2 tip :)