Sunday, August 23, 2009

Train alert!


A group of people were asked the following question. ``Say there are 2 people tied to a railway track, and a train is fast approaching. You have time to save just one of them. Which one would you save?''

The politician replied ``After arranging for a television crew to be present, and preferably making sure there was a press conference afterwards, I would rescue the one with the louder screams.''

The accountant replied ``I would rescue the one who offered to pay me most.''

The journalist replied ``I would ask the train driver to delay the collision till I could get a camera.''

The lawyer replied ``I would jump into the train and offer my services to the driver, who will almost certainly be sued by relatives of the two. ''

The physicist replied ``I would derail the train, as your question did not place any limitations on the safety of those in the train.''

The statistician replied ``I would toss a coin to pick one of them. Then I would toss the coin another hundred times to make sure that that was not a statistical fluke. Then I'd rescue the one selected.''

The Mathematician replied ``I would make two rescues, each saving half a person. But since persons come in whole numbers, in the mathematics of persons 1/2 is always rounded to 1, so each rescue saves a person. There are two rescues, so 2 people are saved.''

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