> >
> > 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
>
> Well, yeah, unless....
> If it took only one minute for a cat to kill a rat and each cat waited its turn....
>
> Or it took one cat one minute to show the other two how to kill a rat and the other two, being tyros, took two minutes each...
>
> Or it took three cats two minutes to get the hang of rat-killing and only one minute to finish off the other two...
>
> Depends on how you look at the original question and your personal philosophies.
> Is the question an exercise in discrete cause and effect relationships or is it simply a rhetorical question?
> Is the answerer more concerned with providing a solution or thinking about the possibilities inherent to the question itself.
>
>
> Jeez! I've done it again! Woolgathering be me!

Woolgathering. Now there's a term I haven't heard in a long time :)