LyricPuzzles.com

www.LyricPuzzles.com

For those of you who enjoyed the Sprocket PictoPuzzle last week, check out my newest pet project LyricPuzzles.com.

Chinese Baby Puzzle

http://www.flickr.com/photos/monsterboox/

"Where the ladies at?"

Alright kids, here’s a puzzle to keep your brain active over the weekend.

China has a population problem. Not only are there too many people, there are too many men! This biased ratio is mainly due to cultural traditions regarding male heirs and the unfortunate abortion of female babies. Very sad, and a very real issue.

To help alleviate the problem, the Chinese government imposes some strict rules on couples. You are only allowed to have one child. If your child is male, you may not have anymore children. However in lieu of the abortion problem, if your first child is female, you have the option of having exactly one more child.

With this system in place, (and assuming this eliminates the abortion problem) what will be the ratio of men to women? How many couples must take advantage of this “bonus” child rule for it to help the sex-ratio problem?

First correct answers get a million “Sprocket Points”.