OK, here’s a classic riddle I haven’t posted on here before.

Four people, A, B, C, and D, are on one side of a bridge, and they all want to cross the bridge. However, it’s late at night, so you can’t cross without a flashlight. They only have one flashlight. Also, the bridge is only strong enough to support the weight of two people at once. The four people all walk at different speeds: A takes 1 minute to cross the bridge, B takes 2 minutes, C takes 5 minutes, and D takes 10 minutes. When two people cross together, sharing the flashlight, they walk at the slower person’s rate. How quickly can the four cross the bridge?

Use this to check your answer: I can get everyone across in 17 minutes, which I’m pretty sure is the answer.

<font color=”white”>blah!</font>

I already posted this riddle, but if you haven’t seen it, it’s worth trying. It requires no math beyond elementary school. This one is a lot of fun to watch people talk through, because their thought processes are often horribly wrong (even very smart people mess this up).

The overly feminist rulers of a country decide that there are too many baby boys being born. The rulers decide to enforce a new law concerning child birth on their overly prosperous subjects. Each family is permitted to have as many children as they want, provided that they only produce baby girls. Once a baby boy enters the family, the family is no longer permitted to have children. Assuming each law abiding family wants to have as many children as possible, what will happen to the ratio of boys to girls, and why?

* the ratio of boys to girls will go up.
* the ratio of boys to girls will stay the same.
* the ratio of boys to girls will go down.

Hint: Finding the answer is very easy, you just need to ask the right question.

<font color=”white”>spoilers</font>

“If there is a leak out of my administration, I want to know who it is. And if that person has violated the law, the person will be taken care of.” — George W. Bush, October 2003

Little did we know that “taken care of” meant “looked after and protected”, not “handled appropriately”.