On Thu, 22 Dec 2005 22:01:02 -0500, SolarFlare top-posted:

Three risers though.

Yabbut, that misses the point of the gag. It's easy to point at the three
risers:

.. ------------
.. | -- 1
, -----
.. | --2
.. -----
.. | -- 3
.. -------------

And, obviously, the middle one is #2.

But, while stepping up or down the stairs, the way most people count steps,
if you're going down, (to the right) you'd go:


.. ------------
.. | 1
, -----
.. | 2
.. -----
.. | 3
.. -------------

And count 3 steps. But if you're going up, which is right-to-left in
this exsample, you'd go:


3
.. ------------
.. | 2
, -----
.. | 1
.. -----
.. |
.. -------------

because where you started from is zero in either case, but step 2 is
different if you're going up or down.

Hope This Hemps!^H^H^H^Hlps! %-}
Rich



"Roger" wrote in
message
...
Or this one: Imagine a short staircase, say to a
"sunken living
room" or some such, of 3 steps:


------------
|
-----
|
-----
|

---------------------------

There are only two steps. on the stairway. The
others are landings

Roger Halstead (K8RI & ARRL life member)
(N833R, S# CD-2 Worlds oldest Debonair)
www.rogerhalstead.com