Tim and Adam made a bet.Tim bet Adam that he could put something into his barrel to make it lighter. They first weighed the barrel. Then Adam left the room while Tim pondered a solution.One hour later, Adam returned, and they weighed the barrel once again. The barrel was indeed lighter. What did Tim put in the barrel?

(In reply to re: think think ?????? by levik)

Pedanty rather than irrelevance!

In Ravi's first solution the hole was made at the bottom to allow the contents to flow out, in which case it doesn't matter how the hole is made (assuming that there are contents capable of flowing through the hole).

Latterly he asked us to "think think ??????" what if the hole were made at the top. I was just playing devil's advocate and showing that both success and failure are possible with the same solution. In the same way that there are alternative solutions to this problem (eg helium) there are alternative situations within the bounds of the problem where the solutions fail.

Posted by fwaff on 2003-02-13 22:13:50