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Re: cats, rats and murder most foul
Kelly, on host 192.208.46.32
Thursday, June 24, 1999, at 07:04:11
cats, rats and murder most foul posted by Vexed on Thursday, June 24, 1999, at 06:48:05:
> "If 3 cats can kill 3 rats in 3 minutes, how long will it take 100 cats to kill 100 rats?"
>
> All these years, I have never understood why the answer to that question was "3 minutes." Can someone please help out?
>
> Vexed, most vexed
Forget the number of rats and cats. What it boils down to is that it takes three minutes for a cat to kill a rat. Take the first sentence, "...3 cats can kill 3 rats in 3 minutes." So if we assume that the cats and rats are battling simaltaneously (one cat per rat), then it takes each cat three minutes to kill his rat. As long as the number of cats and rats is the same, then the answer will always be three minutes.
Hopefully that clarifies things for you.
Kel"cats, and rats, and minutes, oh my!"ly
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