Logic Challange

i think that girls would prolly outnumber the boys because anyone can have any number of duaghters as long as they dont have a son..and you have to stop having children when you have a son so each family is obviously going to have only one son..

So, one vote boys, two vote girls... Darla tells me she is too busy to worry about probabilities right now.. hmm...

Well, I'll just let this run for a LITTLE longer...

Oooh, that is TOO long. SHall I give the answer for the benefit of those who answered?

I already gave the answer.

Well, you gave AN answer.

ok, i think boys outnumber girls. for your first child your chances are 50/50 male. however, the chances of you having a girl followed by a boy are only 1/4. therefore the chances of there being lots of girls in this country are much smaller than the chances of there being just 1 boy in each family.

perhaps.....

Ok, time I gave the answer on this one...

The answer is that there would be no difference at all, the ratio would remain 50/50 boys and girls. It does not matter what laws and restrictions the government puts in place- unless it actually KILLS kids, the chances of the next baby born remain the same 50/50 for boy or girl as they always were!

You just end up with 50% of families having ome boy only, the others have a mix of girls and maybe one boy- the numbers end up the same.

fair enough. see, that's me trying to be clever again. i even had the correct answer in my incorrect solution!!

Well, that is better than nothing then...

Simple problem now!

A barge is in a lock ten metres long and five metres wide, flooded at two metres. A rope ladder is over the side, the bottom is 15cm over the water. Water pours into the lock at five hundred litres a second. How long before the water reaches the ladder?

Originally posted by Ushgarak
A barge is in a lock ten metres long and five metres wide, flooded at two metres.

Do you mean the water level is 2 metres?

Yes

Assuming the barge is already fully submerged....

The volume of water to be filled is 10x5x0.15 = 7.5m^3.
Rate of water fill is 500l/s = 500dm^3 s^-1 = 0.5m^3 s^-1
Rate = volume / time, time = volume / rate
Time = 7.5/0.5 = 15 s

15 seconds. 1 cm a second. Seems reasonable, that's a lot of water.

Thought people didn't like maths questions in the logic problem thread, Ush?

Now, Darla, you know I have great respect for your intelligence, yeah? You are at a good university doing a phd and are far more qualified than I will ever be and I very much appreciate what that says about you.

I don't want you to think that I am in any way trying to mock, ok?

right. i was willing to admit my mistake and that i am in fact the world's thickest person, but NO!

this is a shoddy question. teh reason i asked if the water was at 2m is because i wanted to be sure the barge was completely flooded. Turns out the question is ambiguous and it's not the barge that's flooded at all. Pah.

So the answer is that it is a trick question, the ladder in fact hangs over the barge not the side of the lock (which in my experience would be a good place to put it if the barge was sinking!) and so the water will never reach the ladder.

happy, Ush?

Okidokey, to clarify:

The barge is not flooded at all (as far as I know), it is the lock that is filled to two metres. The rope ladder is hanging from the top of the barge.

Oh, you answered. Well, it's always a dodgy thing just to attack the question; I have never had trouble with that one before...

Ok, a SMALL amount of maths in this one, but not much.

Two bridges on a straight river are a mile apart. A person rows upstream at a steady speed, passes the first bridge, and loses his hat under the second. Ten minutes later, he notices he's lost it. He turns around to go get it, rowing at the same steady speed, and catches up with it under the first bridge.

How fast is the river flowing?

Oh, this question needs justification because you can guess the right answer without actually having thought it through.