You have five jars of pills. All the pills in one jar only are "contaminated." The only way to tell which pills are contaminated is by weight. A regular pill weighs 10 grams; a contaminated pill is 9 grams. You are given a scale and allowed to make just one measurement with it. How do you tell which jar is contaminated?
2007-03-25 11:23:43 · 11 answers · asked by ws 3 in Entertainment & Music ➔ Jokes & Riddles
The solution is to weigh a different number of pills from each jar. Say you take one pill from jar#1, two from jar#2, three from jar#3, and four from jar#4. (You can take five from jar#5 or more elegantly zero from jar#5, either way you'll get the answer.) Now there are five cases and five possible results:
1. Jar#1 is contaminated. The weight will be 1x9 + 2x10 + 3x10 + 4x10 = 99.
2. Jar#2 is contaminated. The weight will be 1x10 + 2x9 + 3x10 + 4x10 = 98.
3. Jar#3 is contaminated. The weight will be 1x10 + 2x10 + 3x9 + 4x10 = 97.
4. Jar#4 is contaminated. The weight will be 1x10 + 2x10 + 3x10 + 4x9 = 96.
5. Jar#5 is contaminated. The weight will be 1x10 + 2x10 + 3x10 + 4x10 = 100.
2007-03-25 11:35:50 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 1⤋
You put 2 jars on one side of the scale and 2 more on the other side. If they are equal the remaining jar is the contaminated one. If they are not equal you know that the less side has the contaminated jar + a jar of good pills. So one of these two is the contaminated jar of pills. Thats the closest I can get.
2007-03-25 18:42:31 · answer #2 · answered by Crystal 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
take a pill out of each jar placing them on the scale 1 after another watching the weight when you put the contaminated one on it will only go up an extra 9 not 10
2007-03-25 18:44:00 · answer #3 · answered by gregs111 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Without luck, I can't do it in less than three non-incremental weighings assuming it is not a balance scale where I would need two. I salute Corledon..
2007-03-25 18:40:09 · answer #4 · answered by DrB 7 · 0⤊ 1⤋
all the pills are in one jar.
2007-03-25 18:27:00 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
weigh both and the one which weighs less is the contaminated.
â¥Robertaâ«
2007-03-25 18:28:05 · answer #6 · answered by ♥Roberta. 5 · 0⤊ 1⤋
u look at it and c which one looks like was in a mouth
2007-03-25 18:27:00 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
o, ive heard this b4 but i forget the answer, darn
2007-03-25 18:34:00 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
you measer one pill bottle and eat the rest!
I don't know?!
2007-03-25 18:29:10 · answer #9 · answered by spontaneous09 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋
You weigh it.
2007-03-25 18:27:24 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋