You have 100lbsof potatoes, which are 99 percent water by weight. You let them dehydrate until they're 98 percent water. How much do they weigh now?
>>7981343
Get out high school
>>7981343
Roughly 51 lbs.
>>7981354
51.2 lbs to be exact
>>7981343
Something like this,
(99-x)/(100-x) = .98
x = 50
So the potatoes now weight 50 lbs and there is 49 lbs of water weight, ie 98% water.
>>7981343
97.02 pounds
99% water 1% other
100lbs = 99lbs water, 1lb other
98% water = 98lbs water, 1lb other
99lbs
wtf am I missing here that the other ~50lbs is gone
It's exactly 50 pounds, right?
>>7981343
Am i retarded?
99%100 = 99 pounds of water, initially
99%x = y pounds of water, dehydrated.
We want x... but what is y? Am I actually retarded or is this problem not possible?
>>7981570
Wait wait, I see it.
>98% water = 98lbs water, 1lb other
is not true.
If 1lb is 2% now, I'm not awake enough for this.
I see what the problem here is. People are doing the 98% part incorrectly do to how it is worded. Due to the wording, it is 50lbs. But, in reality it'd be 99lbs.
Here's another curve. Let's say you start with 1 pound of potato solids. Now add enough water to that so that the water is 98% of the total weight of potato solids and water. The answer for this is 50lbs. That's 50lbs minus 98% of the weight leaving 1 pound of potato solids.
To word the OP problem differently will change the outcome to 99lbs instead of 50lbs,
100lbs of potatoes.
99% of the potatoes is water by weight.
Remove 98% of the water by weight.
How much do the potatoes weigh?
A: 99lbs
The original sentence, "You let them dehydrate until they're 98 percent water." uses terminology to force you to use the total weight of the potatoes (solids and water together) to calculate down the % and pounds. Whereas the one that is differently worded in the example above lets you weigh only the water, not water+potato solids.
I think this problem is only due to ambiguous wording of English.
Didn't read thread, going in blind:
>>7981343
>You have 100lbsof potatoes, which are 99 percent water by weight.
...so it's 99 lbs water, 1 lb "other"
>You let them dehydrate until they're 98 percent water.
...so the one pound of "other" is now 2%, or 1/50th
>How much do they weigh now?
50 lbs
>>7981634
>Due to the wording, it is 50lbs. But, in reality it'd be 99lbs.
If you dehydrate it down to 99 lbs, and 1 pound isn't water, that means 98 of 99 lbs ARE water, so that's 98/99 = 98.989898...% water
>100lbs of potatoes.
>99% of the potatoes is water by weight.
>Remove 98% of the water by weight.
>How much do the potatoes weigh?
>A: 99lbs
Nope, you're removing 98% of 99 lbs of water, leaving 2% of 99 lbs, or 1.98 lbs water.
Add your pound of solids, the total is 2.98 lbs, not 99.
>I think this problem is only due to ambiguous wording of English.
There's nothing ambiguous about the wording.
>>7981582
50 elbs is rite doe
>>7981699
>missing it
I don't think it can be dumbed down much further for you to understand.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potato_paradox
