and often becomes one of great complexity.
To illustrate this, let us take two candidates for a prize, A and B, who are to compete in French, German, and Italian:
(a) Let it be laid down that the result is to depend on their relative knowledge of each subject, so that, whether their marks, for French, be "1, 2" or "100, 200," the result will be the same: and let it also be laid down that, if they get equal marks on 2 papers, the final marks are to have the same ratio as those of the 3rd paper. This is a case of ordinary Double Rule of Three. We multiply A's 3 marks together, and do the same for B. Note that, if A gets a single "0," his final mark is "0," even if he gets full marks for 2 papers while B gets only one mark for each paper. This of course would be very unfair on A, though a correct solution under the given conditions.
( b ) The result is to depend, as before, on relative knowledge; but French is to have twice as much weight as German or Italian. This is an unusual form of question. I should be inclined to say "the resulting ratio is to be nearer to the French ratio than if we multiplied as in ( a ), and so much nearer that it would be necessary to use the other multipliers twice to produce the same result as in ( a ):" e.g. if the French Ratio were 2 ⁄ 10 , and the others 2 ⁄ 9 , 1 ⁄ 9 so that the ultimate ratio, by method