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/ A rope lying over the top of a fence is the same length on each side.  It     \
| weighs one third of a pound per foot.  On one end hangs a monkey holding a    |
| banana, and on the other end a weight equal to the weight of the monkey.      |
| The banana weighs two ounces per inch.  The rope is as long (in feet) as      |
| the age of the monkey (in years), and the weight of the monkey (in ounces)    |
| is the same as the age of the monkey's mother.  The combined age of the       |
| monkey and its mother is thirty years.  One half of the weight of the monkey, |
| plus the weight of the banana, is one forth as much as the weight of the      |
| weight and the weight of the rope.  The monkey's mother is half as old as     |
| the monkey will be when it is three times as old as its mother was when she   |
| was half as old as the monkey will be when it is as old as its mother         |
| will be when she is four times as old as the monkey was when it was twice     |
| as its mother was when she was one third as old as the monkey was when it     |
| was old as is mother was when she was three times as old as the monkey was    |
\ when it was one fourth as old as it is now.  How long is the banana?          /
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        \   ^__^
         \  (oo)\_______
            (__)\       )\/\
                ||----w |
                ||     ||

According to the Fact Sphere: "The Space Sphere will never go to space."
In the spirit of William Shakespeare: Thou art a dissembling, shard-borne ratsbane.