You have nine brass rings, but three are actually gold. Can you pick these out using a balance scale three times at the most?

(In reply to Ring Around by brianjn)

How this appears on screen is not my problem.

I have, by my own judgement, assigned a Gold ring to each of my A, B, C groups.  I placed them in the 1st, 2nd and 3rd position of each group.

I built my 'truth' table within Excel so that I could realistically rotate my Rings; truth table no, but I can see how Gold (g) and Brass work when assigned values of 1 and 0.

Here is it:
May it be faithful.
Groups A and B are on the scales, C is on the Table.
                            A               B                C
                         1 2 3          4 5 6           7 8 9

Equal                 g 2 3          4 g 6           7 8 g
Heavy (L)           g g 2          3 4 g           6 7 8
Heavy (L)           8 g g          2 3 4           g 6 7


I think that I have to compare what is on the scales at each weighing and that on the table at each cycle.  But then a true truth table may give the result.

Going again!

Posted by brianjn on 2005-06-23 09:51:01