[Guest]

Story: Mary has 2 boyfriends --Mr. Uptown and Mr. Downtown, who live on the same subway line Mary rides to see them. She follows the following procedure to decide which one to visit: Goes to subway, takes the first train that comes in either direction. After a few months, Mary notices she almost always ends up visiting Mr. Downtown. She takes it as fate and marries Mr. Downtown. Any comments?

[Guest]

Story: Mary has 2 boyfriends --Mr. Uptown and Mr. Downtown, who live on the same subway line Mary rides to see them. She follows the following procedure to decide which one to visit: Goes to subway, takes the first train that comes in either direction. After a few months, Mary notices she almost always ends up visiting Mr. Downtown. She takes it as fate and marries Mr. Downtown. Any comments?

Does the train going downtown come 5 minutes before the other?

[Yoruichi-san]

Um, well from my experience riding bus routes...

She on a loop that is on one side of both of them, and Mr. Downtown is closer to the loop, like:

O-

where she lives on the O and they are both on the -. Mr. Downtown is closer more west then Mr. Uptown.

[Gambit]

she goes down to the station at aproximately the same time everyday. She therefore gets the same train...

she only visits mr Uptown when she's a little later/earlier than usual...

<_<

[Guest]

Mary should have checked the subway timetable before deciding fate was the leading factor. It's much more likely that the times at which the trains arrive at the station are to blame.

Say both trains going uptown and trains going downtown arrive at the station every 10 minutes. If the train going downtown arrives on the fives: 1:05, 1:15, 1:25, etc., and the train traveling uptown arrives on the sixes: 1:06, 1:16, 1:26, etc., then Mary only ever goes uptown if she arrives at the station during the minute between the five and six.

Poor Mr. Uptown, a train-crossed lover...

[Guest]

Already posted.