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Suppose you have a cup of coffee and a cup of tea. In step 1,
you transfer one spoonful of liquid from the coffee-cup to the
tea-cup. In step 2, you transfer one spoonful of liquid from
the tea-cup back to the coffee-cup. Question: Is there more
tea in the coffee, or more coffee in the tea?
I know of several ways of analyzing this problem, some of
which lead to the right answer, and some of which don't.
So the questions for today are
*) Why do people have a hard time with this riddle?
*) What can be learned from this family of mistakes?
*) In what other circumstances might people be tempted to
make similar mistakes? What are the warning signs?