I am giving this puzzle verbatim from a book I read long ago. These days most everything I have ever done was long ago. But I digress. I simply don't trust myself to re-cast it into scintillating banter style. So if its tenor is archaic or arcane, the onus is off me. Enjoy. A rope ran over a pulley; at one end was a monkey, at the other end a weight. The two remained in equilibrium. The weight of the rope was 4 oz/foot, and the ages of the monkey and the monkey's mother amounted to four years. The weight of the monkey was as many pounds as the monkey's mother was years old, and the weight of the weight and the weight of the rope were together half as much again as the weight of the monkey. The weight of the weight exceeded the weight of the rope by as many pounds as the monkey was years old when the monkey's mother was twice as old as the monkey's brother was when the monkey's mother was twice half as old as the monkey's brother will be when the monkey's brother is three times as old as the monkey's mother was when the monkey's mother was three times as old as the monkey was in paragraph 1. The monkey's mother was twice as old as the monkey was when the monkey's mother was half as old as the monkey will be when the monkey is three times as old as the monkey's mother was when the monkey's mother was three times as old as the monkey was in paragraph 1. The age of the monkey's mother exceeded the age of the monkey's brother by the same amount as the age of the monkey's brother exceeded the age of the monkey. What was the length of the rope?