High Concept Check-Out

The burly cashier at Stop and Shop told the dude in front of me that his total, $8.68, was a "palindrome," and that sometimes-- once in a rare while-- the total and the change are both palindromes . . . and I should point out that this guy is coaching a youth soccer team; the last time I ran into him he told me there are two kinds of bars: 1) the kind where you look for trouble 2) the kind where you don't look for trouble; he is a font of wisdom.
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4 comments:

  1. C'est MoiOctober 30, 2010 at 12:21 PM

    and which type of bar do you frequent?

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  2. DaveOctober 30, 2010 at 3:52 PM

    i love a good dive bar!

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  3. zmanOctober 30, 2010 at 4:09 PM

    I think that the closest your change can be to a palindrome wil be $1.11, $2.22, $8.88, etc., in situations where the total is also a palindrome.

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  4. DaveOctober 30, 2010 at 5:55 PM

    actually thinking about this mathematical problem is definitely not in the purview of this blog. i'm sure there's a nerdy math-blog you can start frequenting.

    ReplyDelete