Sunday, July 26, 2009

The Confounding Factor Challenge




A man is walking around a tree. A squirrel is climbing around the trunk of the tree, and is always on the opposite side of the man. Is the man walking around the squirrel?


Feel free to leave your solution in the comment area.

I warn you though, I'm pretty clever so do not feel bad when you find out your answer is wrong. Oh, and the owner of the blog is always right. It is a unspoken blog rule. I am just jesting. I do not know the answer but I am going to ponder the riddle and post my solution in a few days.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

No. He is not, and he is. (I got a little help from my mom and my grandma.) Aimee K.

Milo said...

Depends on your point of view. From the tree's fixed position point of view, both are going round the tree; neither is going round the other. From the squirrel's point of view -- always facing toward the center of the tree as he moves around the tree-- the man is always straight staight-ahead: straight through the tree and is not moving around the squirrel. From the squirrel's point of view -- always facing in same direction as he moves around the tree, the man is going round the squirrel.

PS. Your definition of confounding seems a bit off. Unless a confounder is associated with at least two elements in an association, it can't influence the association.