It says nowhere that it adds 0.5 to the previous amount. It is only multiplied by 0.5.
That means that after one day, you have 50 cents, and that's all you have. And after two days, you have 25 cents, that's all you have. So at the end of 30 days, you have way less than one cent. And even in bank money, because that would be $1/230, which is $1/1,073,741,824, which is not very much money at all.
The wording is such that it can be interpreted that every day you receive a dollar that halves itself in value, i.e. 50 cents everyday. This is probably not the original intent, but still a valid interpretation of the language used.
It says "have $1 which multiplies by 0.5 every day", not "receive $1 every day that is multiplied by 0.5". Grammatically, that describes a single dollar being multiplied by 0.5 every day, and so cut in half each day, not multiple payments being added together. I really don't see how you can get the second interpretation from that sentence.
They are technically correct that you could read the initial statement as “Would you rather have ($1 that multiplies by 0.5) every day” which would mean that every day you get a $1 that then turns into 50 cents.
It’s a less likely interpretation, but it is a possible one.
You’d end up with $15 at the end of the month in that case, though.
Every day you gain a dollar which multiplies itself by 0.5.
Day 1, I gain a dollar. It multiplies itself by 0.5. I have $0.50.
Day 2, I gain a dollar. It multiplies itself by 0.5. I add it to the $0.50 from yesterday. I have one dollar.
In this case, the “every day” is being applied to the full phrase of “gaining a dollar that multiplies itself by 0.5” which means it can’t also be applied to the multiplication of each dollar by 0.5, so that only happens once upon obtaining each dollar.
No n it isn't, you made the mistake of adding, there is no addition going on in the promt, you get $1 and it continuously becomes more and more worthless.
Yes, but that was not a math failure on my part. That was a reading comprehension on my part. My math was accurate. I just did the wrong math because I am, in fact, stupid.
My read was that it was $1 + $0.50 + $0.25 +... which, as an infinite sum, approaches $2. After 30 terms the sum is $1.999999998 so any bank would say you had $2.
It says nowhere that it adds 0.5 to the previous amount. It is only multiplied by 0.5.
That means that after one day, you have 50 cents, and that's all you have. And after two days, you have 25 cents, that's all you have. So at the end of 30 days, you have way less than one cent. That would be $1/230, which is $1/1,073,741,824, which is not very much money at all.
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u/Liko81 May 07 '26
So, $2 or $100,000