easy riddle,,…?
You have 12 coins. Eleven are made of gold; one is counterfeit. You don’t know which one because they all look alike. Also, you don’t know if the fake coin is heavier or lighter than a real gold coin. All eleven gold coins weigh the same.
You have a classic balance scale: two pans suspended from a pole with the center point balanced on a post. The scale can compare the weight of an object or objects in the left pan (L) with an object or objects in the right pan (R ). The scale will tell you if pan L is equal, heavier or lighter than pan R.
You can use the scale only three times for weight measurements with the coins. Can you determine not only which coin is fake, but if it is heavier or lighter than the real gold coins? Or, is the task impossible with only three measurements?
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i think so.
you just do 4 coins at a time.. 2 in pan L and 2 in pan R
if you are lucky and you find the scale imbalance before you use up your third measurement.. put one coin from each 2 groups, so for your last measurement you have one in pan L and one in pan R. (obviously, you get this ONE coin from the trial when the scale was not balanced)
you take your data from when the scale was imbalanced on 4 coins and when you try the last 2.. one be heavier, and one lighter.. based on your data from all the other tests.. you should be able to figure out if the fake is heavier or lighter than the real ones.
i hope that wasnt too confusing.
good luck
If you don’t know whether the counterfeit is heavier or lighter I’m not sure how you’d do it. However, if it was, for instance, lighter, then:
1-Put 6 in L and 6 in R. Lighter one has counterfeit.
2-Take lighter pile and put 3 in L and 3 in R. Lighter one has counterfeit.
3-Put one out of lighter 3 in L and another in R. If they weigh the same, the odd one’s counterfeit. If one is light, then that’s the counterfeit!
can we bite the coins first?
I don’t think it’s possible with three tries…You’d need more trials to figure it out.
One no it is not impossible for just three times.
You take six coins and put them in the left pan and six coins and put them in the right pan.
If the left side is heavier or lighter you take the six coins in it and divides them into three.into each pan.
then do the same thing except take two of the three remaining gold pieces. if they equal out then you know the one you didnt put in there is counterfiet and if you scale tips then you know which one is counterfeit anyways.