Sucks, but at least they acknowledged it was an error on their end this time. I hope Keith can find a way to fix it, but based on when this has happened before, didn't they always tell us that it was impossible to go back?
I'm sorry, but your answer of 12020917 for the trivia was incorrect.
Answer(s): 9759053
Ok, did anyone here get the right answer? If so, what was your math to come up with it? I came up with my answer by counting 172 items that Subeautique stocks thus: x + .45x = 3(42,357)(172) where x is Esmerelda's profit.
The equation seems like it should be 3*42357*(number of items)*.55 = profit
According to what I could find on SHQ, there are 127 items currently stocking, not 172... but I positively cannot figure out how they got that answer. I've worked it backwards to check if my number of items is wrong, tried checking to see if they used .45 where it should have been .55, every possible combination... and nothing comes out to the answer they gave. Bizarre. Even with the equation you gave, I can't make anything out of it.
I got it wrong, but I knew I would. I just didn't care enough to count all the Subeautique items.
However, working backwards, I also have no idea at all how that answer exists. Working backwards, you get ~139.6 items in Subeautique. (Doing the math with 139 or 140 does not result in the answer.) It's possible that I'm messing up my math work--I did just wake up--but I tried it two different ways and got the same result both times, which lends credence to the idea that it's bad math.
It's also bad word choice. Esmeralda doesn't owe anyone anything out of her cut. Except perhaps the government, via taxes, but the whole point of the word "cut" is that it's what she takes home at the end of the day. Her cut is her percentage. The word the question was looking for was probably "gross." It's the difference between gross income and net income.
(I did consider the possibility that the use of the word "cut" is a deliberate trick, but the math doesn't work that way anyway, and the language still doesn't work. And I think klaatu's equation is probably based on the use of the word "cut"?)
I used the same equation as Foghawk and had counted 172 items. I'd definitely like to know the method for finding the correct answer, because I spent far too much time trying to (unsuccessfully, I suppose) figure out this trivia.
Fuckitall, but I'm stuck on this one. I've spent far longer than I care to admit searching for the answer, and while I've found a couple of possibilities, neither fits entirely - or even very well at all - and both require guessing as to the intent of the person who chose this trivia and its answer.
So I'm giving public bitching its due, because it's all I've got left. *whimper*
Yeah, I'm not entirely happy with the answer I submitted because it doesn't seem to "fulfill" the entire question, but it was the best I could find and I wasn't willing to spend more than an hour searching for it.