It is a well-guarded military secret that there is a parallax or three-dimensional hole in number sequences.  The most used of these is the 29^th Parallax which is vital for the technology of stealth bombers and other “invisible” inventions.  At the risk of alerting the CIA to the fact that this knowledge is now in the public domain I shall try to demonstrate as simply as I can the parallax.

 

Three sweet old ladies,

As sweet as sweet could be

Went shopping to the Oxfam store

To buy a cheap TV.

 

They found a set that they all liked

And asked if they could try it;

The salesman said, “It’s thirty pounds”

They quickly said “We’ll buy it.”

 

They each took ten pounds from their purse

To split the total bill

The salesman took their tenners

And put them in the till.

 

“Hold up, son!” a voice cried out

(He saw his boss arrive)

”We’ve reduced that set this week;

It’s only twenty five”.

 

“So if they gave you thirty pounds

To buy that old TV

Best give them back a fiver

With compliments from me”

 

The lad looked at the five pound note

He had to split in three

Which was beyond his simple maths

To share it equally.

 

And then the thought occurred to him,

“I’ll give them each a quid

And keep the other two myself.”

So that is what he did.

 

He said he’d overcharged them

“The fault” he said “is mine”

And gave them back a quid apiece,

Which meant they’d each paid nine.

 

So they’d paid twenty seven pounds

And he’d kept two, we know;

But that adds up to twenty nine

So where’d the last pound go?