Hacker News Reader

Parent Full thread

koolba

It’s even more specific!

You can tell a son that all their male ancestors had a son!

And you can tell a daughter that all their female ancestors had a daughter!

No pressure indeed!

View on HN

> You can tell a son that all their male ancestors had a son

This seems off... by counterexample, my grandfather had no sons, but three daughters (one being my mother).

Your mother is not a male ancestor. Parent was just saying there is a line of all males for men and all females for women.

No, but the maternal grandfather is still a male ancestor. Parent said "all male ancestors had a son", which is not true. The true statement is that, for any generation of ancestors, at least one had a son.

I agree that's what he probably intended, but that's definitely not what he said.

Yes that is what I intended. The line up the father side for the boys and the mother side for the girls.

There is an unbroken line of males having males and females having females, but not every male ancestor had a son and not every female had a daughter. Every ancestor had a father and mother, but it doesn't work in reverse.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com