Nearing Completion of Evaluation of RS system (not)

No, DonDiego posits no such thing. Once the rope breaks, that determines "how far one can lower an infinite rope into a bottomless pit." The infinite remainder of the rope outside the pit may then be lowered, but is likely to break at approximately the same distance into the pit. One may repeat this as often as one wishes; "how far" the rope can be lowered will remain approximately the same. DonDiego suggests mrmarcus12LVA do so to achieve greater accuracy in the estimate for the particular infinite length of rope which mrmarcus12LVA chooses to employ.

DonDiego had no intent of alluding to the Martingdale. That sounds like something w-a-a-a-a-y to difficult for poor old DonDiego to even comprehend.

I now understand the context in which DonDiego posted the question, and am relieved to see that his logic is, as always, impeccable.

I had taken the question in a different context, and was looking at it with a different focus. I look forward to his next thought-provoking question.

New puzzle: The Two Girls

Assuming the chances are 50/50 for having a boy or a girl.

What are the chances that a mother giving birth to two babies will have
two girls (we are excluding identical twins)?

What are the chances, given that one of the children is a girl, that
both children will be girls?

What are the chances, given that one of the children is a girl named Florida, that both children will be girls?

New Puzzle 2: Who Keeps Sheep

The following puzzle is designed to rate someone on their reasoning skills and reveal how they solve problems. It is easy to solve if you think in a particular way and impossible to solve otherwise.

You should time yourself and show work. The answer is not as important as the method you use to solve it. Therefore, simply giving the answer without showing how you got it would be considered a fail. I did it just for fun and got the correct answer in about 30 min. Try to beat me.

• There are 5 adjacent residences each made of a different material.
• In each resides a man of a different race who owns them.
• Each owner has a preferred beverage. Each of the five also has a preferred weapon and keeps a single type of animal as pet or for food. No owner has the same animal, fights with the same weapon nor consumes the same beverage.
• The question is. “Who Keeps Sheep?”

CLUES

1. The Dane lives in the Grass Hut.
2. The Norman has a Tiger.
3. The Viking drinks Mead.
4. The Cloth Tent is to the left of the Brick House.
5. The owner of the Cloth Tent likes Ale.
6. The person that uses a Long Sword has a Cow.
7. The owner of the Tudor house uses a Long Bow.
8. The person in the middle residence drinks only Water.
9. The Brit lives in the first residence.
10. The person that fights with a Mace, lives next to the one that keeps Horses.
11. The person with the Pig lives next to the one that's an Archer.
12. The one that fights with a Rapier drinks Wine.
13. The Goth has a Battle Axe.
14. The Brit lives next to the guy with a Mud Hut.
15. The person that fights with a Mace, has a neighbor that drinks Guinness.

NOTE: It is original and not on-line, so it's not possible to look up the answer.

#1: bb, gg, bg, gb all equal probability. gg = 25%

#2: if one is girl: gg, bg, gb. gg = 33.3%

#3: I'll assume all babies named Florida are girls so 33.3%.

Nothing indicates that any of them do. One of them has a tiger, one a pig, one a cow, and one horses. The fifth one might have a parrot, for all we know.

1. 50%

2. 33%

3. 0% With the first child's name being Florida, someone will declare the second child as having a hanging chad and it must be a boy, even if it is a girl.

Need more time + radio programming + ropes + girls + sheep + Rob Singer = this is going to be quite an analysis.

Correct answers:

1. 25%

2. 33%

3. 50%

Now can you explain why and show work?

I'm disappointed that no one is seriously trying to answer the Who Keeps Sheep question. Apparently 99% of the population cannot answer it no matter how hard they try. The other 1% gets it easily. It has to do with cognition.

Good luck!