Riddle: How do you get 30 when subtracting 1 from 29?

[Fridays Child]

Any guesses? I don't know the answer, by the way.

[Richard Steele]

1. When the "subtracting" is one of the 29 giving birth.

[Fridays Child]

5. Huh?

I don't think I'm smart enough to get that. :(

[Richard Steele]

16. Forget I said anything- I like Junkdrawer's answer below.

[Fridays Child]

26. I like that one, too.

[Rosemary2205]

2. If

you write an equation with toothpick or m&m's or whatever by laying them all out on the table.

29 toothpicks laid out (minus) 1 toothpick laid out then you will need a total of 30 toothpicks to lay out the equation.

[Fridays Child]

11. That makes sense.

:)

[Uben]

3. the 29 is a negative? nt

[Fridays Child]

6. No, not the way it was told to me, anyway.

[sandnsea]

7. They're all negatives

Right -29 -1 = -30?? Don't really know, math is not my thing at all.

[pnorman]

4. Somehow, that One will have to be a MINUS One.

But don't ask me how to word it so that it isn't so obvious.

pnorman

[berni_mccoy]

8. 29 - -1 = 30

[npincus]

9. purty good thinkin' there

[AX10]

10. Good thinking

[mdmc]

12. 30 = +29 - (-)1

:kick:

[FormerDittoHead]

13. Stupid guess - when it's 29 after and subtract 1 minute, you have 30 minutes left in the hour.

I'm just thinking there's some 'trick' to it...

[Junkdrawer]

14. X X IX --> X X X

:shrug:

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

15. I Believe So. This Is An Old Riddle.

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

17. I Believe The Answer Is Junkdrawer's Above. If Not, An Alternative Would Be This:

In many riddles, they only tell you part of the picture hoping you'll be convinced it's the total picture and not think broader. Under that premise, a simplistic and also acceptable answer under the terms of the riddle would be "By adding 2". Seen in entirety, it is "How do you get 30 when subtracting 1 from 29?" "By adding 2 to it".

But having done tons of these before, though both answers would be acceptable depending on the type and level of test being taken and creativity of the person stating the riddle, I find it far more common to be the answer that junkdrawer stated.

[hughee99]

20. I think Junkdrawer probably has it, but another alternative is...

30 - 1 = 29
30 - 1 - 1 = 28 but
30 -(1 - 1) = 30, it's all about the parenthesis

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

21. Too Complicated In A Riddle Sense.

Generally, riddles like this have to be able to be answered simply and directly, such as with "By adding 2" or "by doing it with roman numerals". I just mean that as a general tip to solving riddles, and is outside of the fact that you were subtracting 1 from 30 above, not 29.

[hughee99]

24. I agree about the fact that it's more complicated

than a riddles answer normally is, unless you got this in math class or something, but as far as the subtraction goes...

(30 - 1) is the same thing as 29. It's just another way to write it, though not one you'd normally want to use.
so if you subtract one from (30 - 1), you are really subtracting it from 29.
therefore 30 - 1 - 1 is subtracting 1 from 29. The parenthesis had to be added to make the math work.

My answer is a more than a little convoluted and forced though, but dammit all the good answers were taken, and I didn't want to cop-out with a "round it off" suggestion or an Intel floating point error joke.

;)

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

18. For Sake Of Giving My Alternate Answer Visibility: "By Adding 2"

[damntexdem]

19. You use Bushista economic figures?

You get to the end of the story?

[kitkat65]

22. When Bush is taking a math test?

Ba-DUMP-Bump!

[Fridays Child]

27. LOL!

:rofl:

[leftofthedial]

23. hire king george's budget planners to do your arithmetic

pay them millions of dollars of taxpayer money

[rock]

25. Geek answer

Use an early Microsoft Pentium.