So which do you choose?

[Kit-Ginevra]

I do lots of online surveys(hey it makes me a little cash and keeps me off the streets...) and this was the latest one to turn up.

You have to choose one of the options:
An evil villain has set a trolleycar racing down a hill.At the bottom are six innocent people who have been tied to the tracks and cannot escape.If you do nothing they will be killed.That is Option 1.However,if you switch the points,the trolleycar will flick onto an alternate line,where one single person is tied to the track.That is Option 2.
So do you do nothing and let the six get squished,or change the points and save the six,but deliberately kill off the one?

[wolfie]

Note that in real-life rail lines (including trolleys), the switches don't "snap" over the way they do on toy trains. I'd throw the points halfway - enough that the previously-set point wouldn't guide the wheels towards the 6 people, but not enough to get the other point set to guide the wheels to the 1 person.

Odds are that the flanges of the wheels on both sides would run between the fixed rails and the points, resulting in the trolley derailing when it hits the rails extending from the frog to the 2 outlets. Results? Property damage only.

[Chromatix]

That is, incidentally, the principle on which "wide to gauge" trap points work.

Trap points deliberately derail wagons which are presumed to be running out of control, on the theory that a derailment at a reasonably predictable location is a better idea than a collision at an unpredictable one.

Most trap points divert wagons to one side, away from a running line so that if they fall over, they're less likely to foul it. However, sometimes there's a running line on *both* sides, which is where the wide-to-gauge trap points come in. The idea is to land both wheels on the ballast at the same time, keeping the wagon upright, and to squeeze the rails between the flanges to simultaneously act as a guide and powerful brake.

[Raveni]

Even deciding not to decide is a deliberate decision. So, you're deciding to let one person die or six. I also think it's an important decision that you're not causing death by choosing #2, you're just minimizing it.

[Sheldonrs]

I notice it doesn't say that the one is innocent like it does the six.
Save the six and drink until I can convince myself the one was evil too.

[wolfie]

However, sometimes there's a running line on *both* sides, which is where the wide-to-gauge trap points come in.

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