Stock Market Monkeys

Once upon a time a man appeared in a village and announced to the villagers that he would buy monkeys for $10 each.

The villagers, seeing that there were many monkeys around, went out to the forest, and started catching them. The man bought thousands at $10 and as supply started to diminish, the villagers stopped their effort. He further announced that he would now buy at $20. This renewed the efforts of the villagers and they started catching monkeys again.

Soon the supply diminished even further and people started going back to their farms. The offer increased to $25 each and the supply of monkeys became so little that it was an effort to even see a monkey, let alone catch it!

The man now announced that he would buy monkeys at $50! However, since he had to go to the city on some business, his assistant would now buy on behalf of him.

In the absence of the man, the assistant told the villagers. “Look at all these monkeys in the big cage that the man has collected. I will sell them to you at $35 and when the man returns from the city, you can sell them to him for $50 each.”

The villagers rounded up with all their savings and bought all the monkeys.

Then they never saw the man nor his assistant, only monkeys everywhere!

Now you have a better understanding of how the stock market works.

Source: Unknown H/T Prieur

Stupid thought of the day

Ever hear about the mathematician who drowned in the river that was on average 2-inches deep? The joke is slightly bemusing, however, it did start me pondering how the river could be set up so it could drown a man. I mean we most likely have heard that a baby can drown in two-inches of water, but a man is fairly improbable.

Here was the set up I came up with: You have a river that has the same characteristics up and down its length. So a cross-section will mimic the entire river system. It is 1,000 feet wide. The 1st section is 445 feet wide and is 1-inch deep. The middle section is 10 feet wide and is 100 inches deep, (8 1/3 feet.) The last section from the middle to the far bank is 445 feet wide and is 1-inch deep. To find the average depth of the river we add the 3 sections together after we have multiplied them by their depth. Then we divide it by the total width of the river. So

(445*1)+(10*100)+(445*1)=445+1000+445=1990
1990/1000=1.99 inches

So on average the river is 1.99 inches deep, but you can see how this can be tricky for the man fording it.