I know what you're thinking.

> Martian
> Easy Problem
> Pick one

but I assure you, this is literally nothing compared to my other questions.

At a festival, there is a drink stand that sells regular and diet cola. The regular sells for $1.00, and the diet sells for $0.75. A man walks up to the stand and gives the person running the stand two quarters ($0.25 each), four dimes ($0.10 each) and two nickels ($0.05 each). The stand owner gives the man a regular cola and they go about their day, without saying a word, aside from "thanks" and "take care."

How did the stand owner know to give the man a regular cola?

$0.25 * 2 + $0.10 * 4 + $0.05 * 2 = $1.00
$1.00 = regular cola.

I think you know why, but you have to state why that matters.

That's not exactly true. True the man has a dollar and could easily afford the regular soda, but he could have easily wanted a diet soda. Nothing was said. So how did the stand owner know which the customer wanted?

I want to think there is more to this but maybe I'm over analyzing.

Am I on the right path Martian or am I showing myself an utter fool right now?

It's obvious that it adds up to $1.00. Why didn't the stand owner so sure he wanted the regular, instead of the diet?

You are on the right track, General. But did the man really want a diet soda?

No I don't think he wanted a diet soda. Otherwise he probably would have said something had the stand owner given him one.

He did say thanks...

So how did the stand owner know? He had no words to go off of.

I'm gonna say it's because he walked up to the stand instead of waddling up/rolling up. Ie. Customer is skinny/medium and not fat. That's my guess.

I've prepared myself for whichever outcome.

You fail.

Why would the man give the owner that change if he wanted a diet coke? All he had to do was take out a quarter, and he would get the diet coke. But he chose not to keep that quarter, signifying that he wanted a regular coke.

And JSA swoops in to take the win.

The guy's shirt said, "I only drink regular cola."

But what if the shirt was there to lure people?

He might have being getting rid of change.

They were out of diet cola.

The man was a frequent customer, hence the familiar chit chat, and the understood order of 'regular cola'.

The festival loudspeakers had just announced that the man was diabetic and had extremely low blood sugar, so the stand owner knew that he would need the regular and not the diet.

The stand owner was Sherlock Holmes and knew, by way of a rather ingenious deduction that the man was allergic to aspartame, the most common diet sweetener in colas. So he served him the regular.

The stand owner recognized that the man was Ebeneezer Scrooge, who would never tip; therefore he must have been expecting to pay exactly the full price, i.e. a regular cola.

Edited 9/11/2015 11:00:59