Fun fact: on downtime at the store, my coworker watches videos on his computer. Lately, it's been reviews of the Powerpuff Girls reboot (by ShadowStreak), and sometimes, I look over his shoulder and find myself thinking questions like "Why the fuck did anyone think this is an appealing art style?" or "did that kid just grow a beard and tear it off and grow it back again?" or "why are the girls elderly now?" or "Chemical W? Fucking really?"
But one I looked at and I recognised immediately:
There was an entire episode of Fargo devoted to this logical puzzle, and I couldn't help but notice the problem here. Full disclosure, this has so many forms I'll just simplify the participants as Carnivore, Herbivore, and Feed. In order for this problem and its one passenger only rule to make sense, all three participants have the be roughly the same size (I'm going to go out on a limb and say that for the participants in the Fargo version, a rabbit and a cabbage combined would be close to the size of a fox, if not smaller.) If the Herbivore and Carnivore are left alone, there's a good chance that Carnivore will eat and likely kill Herbivore in the time it takes to bring Feed to the other side. But, in my estimation, if Herbivore and Feed are left alone and Herbivore has eaten all the feed, capacity wouldn't be as much of an issue, would it? You could probably leave the Feed on the boat floor (if it's a cabbage, you could even just break off a piece for the Herbivore and nobody's any the wiser). Sure, Herbivore germs on the remaining Feed might be an issue, but I have not found a version where they bring that up. Hell, the earliest versions were written over a millennium before Semmelweis. There's a blatant Asymmetry between the Carnivore-Herbivore and Herbivore-Feed dilemma is all I'm saying.
Thankfully, TedEd's got a version that rectifies this asymmetry:
And here's the answer for those of us who tried to take it on its own terms and didn't get it:
But one I looked at and I recognised immediately:
There was an entire episode of Fargo devoted to this logical puzzle, and I couldn't help but notice the problem here. Full disclosure, this has so many forms I'll just simplify the participants as Carnivore, Herbivore, and Feed. In order for this problem and its one passenger only rule to make sense, all three participants have the be roughly the same size (I'm going to go out on a limb and say that for the participants in the Fargo version, a rabbit and a cabbage combined would be close to the size of a fox, if not smaller.) If the Herbivore and Carnivore are left alone, there's a good chance that Carnivore will eat and likely kill Herbivore in the time it takes to bring Feed to the other side. But, in my estimation, if Herbivore and Feed are left alone and Herbivore has eaten all the feed, capacity wouldn't be as much of an issue, would it? You could probably leave the Feed on the boat floor (if it's a cabbage, you could even just break off a piece for the Herbivore and nobody's any the wiser). Sure, Herbivore germs on the remaining Feed might be an issue, but I have not found a version where they bring that up. Hell, the earliest versions were written over a millennium before Semmelweis. There's a blatant Asymmetry between the Carnivore-Herbivore and Herbivore-Feed dilemma is all I'm saying.
Thankfully, TedEd's got a version that rectifies this asymmetry:
And here's the answer for those of us who tried to take it on its own terms and didn't get it:
Comparing the Universal Oneness of All Life to Yo Mama since 2010.
![[Image: harmlesskitchen.png]](https://i.postimg.cc/yxR97P23/harmlesskitchen.png)
I was born with the gift of laughter and a sense the world is mad.
I was born with the gift of laughter and a sense the world is mad.
