Simple subtraction that I can't figure out. [duplicate]

A bat and a ball cost £1.10 in total. The bat costs £1 more than the ball. How much does the ball cost?

The answer to this question is somehow 5p. How?!! Should it not be 10p?

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marked as duplicate by Yiorgos S. Smyrlis, David Mitra, 5xum, Blue, MJDAug 11 '14 at 14:25

£1 is not £1 more than 10p... – fretty Aug 11 '14 at 13:48
I the ball cost 10p, the bat would cost 1£ more, i.e. £1.10 and both items togetrhre would cost £1.20, not £1.10. – Hagen von Eitzen Aug 11 '14 at 13:50
Searching "bat ball" brings up many duplicates. Apparently, this is a popular "riddle". – David Mitra Aug 11 '14 at 13:56
The difference of two costs is 1 and sum of two costs is 1.1 – Vikram Aug 11 '14 at 14:06

Let's call the cost of the ball $x$. The bat costs $1$ more than the ball so it is $x+1$. Together, they cost $1.1$ so: $$x+(x+1)=1.1$$ $$2x+1=1.1$$ $$\therefore\:x=\frac{1.1-1}{2}=0.05$$ Which gives you the $5p$. Hope I helped.

Note: I've ignored $£$ & $p$ so they don't get in the way; assume that $£1=1$.

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Thank you very much. All the answers were great however, I found yours very informative. – fiverivers Aug 11 '14 at 14:01

Hint:

Let $x$ be the price of the ball (in pence), so $100+x$ is the price of the bat (also in pence). Then:

$$x + (100+x) = 110$$

What is $x$?

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-1 : Either make that $x + (100 + x) = 110$ or $x + (1+x)=1.1$. As it stands this is wrong. For the rest, please do not blindly upvote. @OP after the correction, I have now upvoted. – Sabyasachi Aug 11 '14 at 13:55
@Sabyasachi Edited, tnx. Btw, is was a small derp, the downvote was unnecesary, the comment is enough. – Darth Geek Aug 11 '14 at 13:57
just to bring it to your attention. I changed it to an upvote, :) – Sabyasachi Aug 11 '14 at 13:58
@Sabyasachi well, you certainly got it! =D – Darth Geek Aug 11 '14 at 13:59