#

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>