can you guess the weight of the farmers stones...?

Question

A farmer had a stone that he used to measure grain on his scale. One day his neighbor borrowed the stone, and when he returned, it was broken into four pieces. The neighbor was very apologetic, but the farmer thanked the neighbor for doing him a big favor. The farmer said that now he can measure his grain in one pound increments starting at one pound all the way to forty pounds (1, 2, 3, 17, 29, 37, etc.) using these four stones.

How much do the four stones weigh?

no one has gotten it yet! I know this is a toughy. Keep working at it...i know u can do it!

Answer 1

1, 1, 1, 14

Answer 2

They must weigh 1,3,9 and 27 lb. g=grain

Side 1 Side 2 Amount of grain
1 g 1
3 1+g 2
3 g 3
1+3 g 4
9 1+3+g 5
9 3+g 6
1+9 3+g 7
9 1+g 8
9 g 9
1+9 g 10
3+9 1+g 11
3+9 g 12
1+3+9 g 13
27 1+3+9+g 14
27 3+9+g 15
1+27 3+9+g 16
27 1+9+g 17
27 9+g 18
1+27 9+g 19
3+27 1+9+g 20
3+27 9+g 21
1+3+27 9+g 22
27 1+3+g 23
27 3+g 24
1+27 3+g 25
27 1+g 26
27 g 27
1+27 g 28
3+27 1+g 29
3+27 g 30
1+3+27 g 31
9+27 1+3+g 32
9+27 3+g 33
1+9+27 3+g 34
9+27 1+g 35
9+27 g 36
1+9+27 g 37
3+9+27 1+g 38
3+9+27 g 39
1+3+9+27g 40

Answer 3

Ok working on it, do not have it yet.

One of the stones has to be 1 lb, else you cannot weigh 39 lbs of grain.

All 4 stones need to total 40 lbs.

2 of the stones need to be 2 apart weight wise. and in an ideal world the last weight would be 20, so you repeat the calculations for 21-40 as you do 1-20.

so that leaves you x+y = 19 and x-y = 2

looks like the last weight cannot be 20. So the last 3 weights are 39 lbs total.

argh, this is difficult. Will try again later

Answer 4

i would say about 40 pounds as u asked how much the four stones weigh not each individuial stones weight i may be wrong
but i always go the easyist way first

Answer 5

1, 5, 10, and 24 ?

Answer 6

19, 11, 5, 7

Answer 7

I give up...and you gave me a headache ! I'm off for a lie down