Boys and Girls

4 shiney stars

In a country in which people only want boys, every family continues to have children until they have a boy. If they have a girl, they have another child. If they have a boy, they stop. What is the proportion of boys to girls in the country?

 

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Answer:

This one causes quite a debate, but it can be explained following these steps:

Imagine you have 10 couples who have 10 babies. 5 will be girls. 5 will be boys. (Total babies made: 10, with 5 boys and 5 girls)

The 5 couples who had girls will have 5 more babies. Half (2.5) will be girls. Half (2.5) will be boys. Add 2.5 boys to the 5 already born and 2.5 girls to the 5 already born. (Total babies made: 15, with 7.5 boys and 7.5 girls.)

The 2.5 couples that had girls will have 2.5 more babies. Half (1.25) will be boys and half (1.25) will be girls. Add 1.25 boys to the 7.5 boys already born and 1.25 girls to the 7.5 already born. (Total babies: 17.5 with 8.75 boys and 8.75 girls).

And so on, maintianing a 50:50 population.

 



Difficulty
  • Moderate
Type
  • Logic
  • Mathematical
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Comments

This makes no sense and is a sexist riddle
- Thisisfuntocomment (26 Apr 2014)

This makes sense and is not sexist because it not demeaning to either gender.
- (6 Aug 2014)

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