The Counterintuitive Potato Paradox

If you have 100kg of potatoes that are 99 percent water and let them dry until they are 98 percent water, you might guess they lose very little weight. In reality, the pile shrinks by half, down to 50kg.

This math puzzle works because the solid matter remains constant while the water percentage shifts. Initially, the solid part is only 1kg of the total mass. When the water content drops to 98 percent, that same 1kg must now account for 2 percent of the new total weight. Solving for this means the total mass must be 50kg, proving that even a tiny change in water ratio requires a massive loss in total weight.