Menu
A few weeks back, we discussed how to handle puzzles involving a two pan balance. Today we look at some puzzles with a regular weighing balance. When we put an object on its scale, it shows us the weight of the object.
This is what it looks like:
Puzzles involving a weighing balance can be quite tricky! Let’s take a look at a couple.
Puzzle 1: You have 10 bags with 1000 coins in each. In one of the bags, all of the coins are forgeries. A true coin weighs 1 gram; each counterfeit coin weighs 1.1 grams.
If you have an accurate weighing scale, which you can use only once, how can you identify the bag with the forgeries?
We are allowed only a single weighing, so we cannot weigh all 10 bags on the scale individually to measure which one has counterfeit coins. We need to find the bag in only one weighing, so we need to somehow make the coins in the bags distinctive.
How do we do that? We can take out one coin from the first bag, two coins from the second bag, three coins from the third bag and so on. Finally, we will have 1 + 2 + 3 + … + 10 = 10 × 
= 55 coins.
Let’s weigh these 55 coins now.
If all coins were true, the total weight would have been 55 grams. But since some coins are counterfeit, the total weight will be more. Say, the total weight comes out to be 55.2 grams. What can we deduce from this? We can deduce that there must be two counterfeit coins (because each counterfeit coin weighs 0.1 gram extra). So the second bag must be the bag of counterfeit coins.
Let’s try one more:
Puzzle 2: A genuine gummy bear has a mass of 10 grams, while an imitation gummy bear has a mass of 9 grams. You have 7 cartons of gummy bears, 4 of which contain real gummy bears while the others contain imitation bears.
Using a scale only once and the minimum number of gummy bears, how can you determine which cartons contain real gummy bears?
Now this has become a little complicated! There are three bags with imitation gummy bears. Taking a cue from the previous question, we know that we should take out a fixed number of gummy bears from each bag, but now we have to ensure that the sum of any three numbers is unique. Also, we have to keep in mind that we need to use the minimum number of gummy bears.
So from the first bag, take out no gummy bears.
From the second bag, take out 1 gummy bear.
From the third bag, take out 2 gummy bears (if we take out 1 gummy bear, the sum will be the same in case the second bag has imitation gummy bears or in case third bag has imitation gummy bears.
From the fourth bag, take out 4 gummy bears. We will not take out 3 because otherwise 0 + 3 and 1 + 2 will give us the same sum. So we won’t know whether the first and fourth bags have imitation gummy bears or whether second and third bags have imitation gummy bears.
From the fifth bag, take out 7 gummy bears. We have obtained this number by adding the highest triplet: 1 + 2 + 4 = 7. Note that anything less than 7 will give us a sum that can be made in multiple ways, such as:
0 + 1 + 6 = 7 and 1 + 2 + 4 = 7
or
0 + 1 + 5 = 6 and 0 + 2 + 4 = 6
But we need the sum to be obtainable in only one way so that we can find out which three bags contain the imitation gummy bears.
At this point, we have taken out 0, 1, 2, 4, and 7 gummy bears.
From the sixth bag, take out 13 gummy bears. We have obtained this number by adding the highest triplet: 2 + 4 + 7 = 13. Note that anything less than 13 will, again, give us a sum that can be made in multiple ways, such as:
12 + 1 + 0 = 13 and 2 + 4 + 7 = 13
or
0 + 1 + 9 = 10 and 1 + 2 + 7 = 10
…etc.
Note that this way, we are also ensuring that we measure only the minimum number of gummy bears, which is what the question asks us to do.
From the seventh bag, take out 24 gummy bears. We have obtained this number by adding the highest triplet again: 4 + 7 + 13 = 24. Again, anything less than 24 will give us a sum that can be made in multiple ways, such as:
0 + 1 + 15 = 16 and 1 + 2 + 13 = 16
or
0 + 1 + 19 = 20 and 0 + 7 + 13 = 20
or
0 + 1 + 23 = 24 and 4 + 7 + 13 = 24
…etc.
Thus, this is the way we will pick the gummy bears from the 7 bags: 0, 1, 2, 4, 7, 13, 24.
In all, 51 gummy bears will be weighed. Their total weight should be 510 grams (51 × 10 = 510) but because three bags have imitation gummy bears, the weight obtained will be less.
Say the weight is less by 8 grams. This means that the first bag (which we pulled 0 gummy bears from), the second bag (which we pulled 1 gummy bear from) and the fifth bag (which we pulled 7 gummy bears from) contain the imitation gummy bears. This is because 0 + 1 + 7 = 8 – note that we will not be able to make 8 with any other combination.
Hope this tricky little problem got you thinking. Work those grey cells and no standardized test will seem hard.
