What do you think of this perplexed Maths?

(I think) in project #3, you lost the original investment, but since you can’t lose what you don’t have, you only lost $1,000. You didn’t lose winnings that you didn’t win. I probably didn’t put that well…math is not my forte!

Project #3 seems like a pretty heavy loss to me. It isn’t that surprising that it eats up your profit.

Yeah, and like @smudges, maths isn’t my specialty either :P

@smudges it seems to me that project #3 doesn’t just suck up your investment but also demands you to pay for compensation, if I understand it correctly. Think of some really bad bet.

Interest rate.

Sleight of word.

What you are computing is not net gain or loss, but how much total money you end up with.

In the third project, the total you end up with is -$1000. The first $1000 you lose gives you a total of 0 and then the next $1000 loss gives you -$1000.

What you end up with is 2*$2000+2*$1000—$1000 = $5000. Your net gain is how much you end up with minus what you started with = $5000 – $5000 = 0.

Computing net gain on each line gives 2*1000 for projects 1, 2*0 for projects 2, and -$2000 for project 3 for a total net gain of 0.

First of all, you seem to be assuming you can liquidate your investment and recoup the principle which often isn’t possible. You probably bought equipment which depreciates and so forth. But this is an abstraction, so let’s ignore that.

The problem is that project 5 lost more than the investment. I’m not sure why that is. But your calculation treats Perhaps some legal liability caused a lawsuit that was equal to the original investment? But that loss was TWICE AS BAD as the gains in projects 1 and 2 were good. So it should balance to net zero.

Starting Cash on Hand: 5k
Project1: 1k invested, 1k profit = 2k afterward.
Project2: 1k invested, 1k profit = 2k afterward.
Project3: 1k invested, 0k profit = 1k afterward.
Project4: 1k invested, 0k profit = 1k afterward.
Project5: 1k invested, 2k loss = -1k afterward.

So in total, you have 5k at the end, or a net 0k because that second project didn’t just have no growth, it didn’t just lose the investment, it lost 1k MORE than the investment.

Math is hard.
So what I propose is, I’ll make the money and YOU invest it for me. Then I’ll make a BIG profit and give you a share of that so we all make money!
Deal?

@RayaHope just made me a perfect offer.

Anyone else willing to participate?

’‘Participate’ doesn’t mean getting a part of her money. It means adding your own money to it, so I can get more of it.

:P

^^ This could be he beginning of a beautiful friendship.

If she had let you invest $1000 in each of the five projects, she would have ended up with exactly as much as she had when she started.

After I gave my answer @AhYem pm’d me and said:

@AhYem: “I can lose even more than just my original investment if I invest more money in order to prevent a disaster from happening. For instance, after I lost my starting 1,000 units, I invest another 1,000 to reactivate the project, hoping that this time it would work. But I lose them too, and that’s when I quit that last project…as a result of which I have a minus of not just 1,000 but even 2,000 units.”

Me: “But you didn’t say that. You can’t change the question after people have answered unless you explain it publicly to everyone. You asked how the math worked or why it didn’t work.

This is what you asked…

_So, when you abstract -2,000 from your +6,000, you’ll get +4,000.
Wait a minute, what???
You win twice and lose only once and as a total you’re in minus???_

I answered that question.

@AhYem: “I didn’t change my original question, @smudges. I clearly wrote there that you lose 2,000 units in that last project. 2,000 is more than just 1,000 that you’d started with, and in my private reply to you I just explained how you manage to lose 2,000 in spite of your initial start with 1,000 there.”

Me: “You need to post everything that you’ve written here in the original public question. It’s not good form to discuss a math question like this privately. Maybe you didn’t change the question, but you definitely gave me more information than you did everyone else. If you don’t want to share it I will.”

xxxxxxxxxxx

Sooo…I don’t care about the correct answer, but since I’m no math whiz, especially with word questions, can someone explain whether the meaning of the question changed in the pm he sent me? That’s all I’m wanting to know, because it seems like it did. He gave me more info – specifically about investing more – than he gave to everyone else reading the original question.

Project 3 has to be looked at as follows to make sense. You invest $1000 in project 3. Not only do you lose your investment but the people running project 3 take out a loan for $1000, which is charged to your account. What you are left with is a debt of $1000 of value minus $1000. The net gain is what you end up with minus what you started with = (-$1000) – $1000 = -$2000.

Yes, you can put it like that, @LostInParadise

I think I can close this question, too.

I hope you all realized that it was connected to “fun”.

I purposely made that wrong calculation, just to see how you would react to it.

As I can see, all of you provided correct answers.

Thanks for participating, guys ;)

Sounds like buying Puts and Calls. Could lose a lot in no time.

I think that the general reason students outside the US do better in science is that they have a foundation in maths (plural) while US students typically study math (singular).

Or they could just have really crappy teachers like I did.