Before creating the 5 weights, The ancients had to create a 1 gram weight to measure out all their other weights.

So the ancients had a bunch of super fine sand which was made entirely of the same material, and every grain was its most basic material. They had 121 grams of this sand. They also had a tube which could hold exactly 121 grams of sand, no more, no less.

How do the ancients weigh out 1 gram of sand?

For this, you have to KNOW that the tube holds 121 grams of sand. We don't know how they know this, but they must know that.

Then, to know they have 121 grams of sand, they just pour it all in the tube and see it exactly fits.

What you are trying to do is find 1/121 of what will fit in the tube, since 1 gram/ 121 grams = 1/121.


I don't know how to do this without a scale or measurements on the tube... So I don't know if I ruled out something in the problem

Posted by Gamer on 2003-04-14 09:51:49