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

I introduced a idea of rotating objects one at a time; arose from shifting 'bits' within a 'byte' through a 'circular' motion.

(Ring Around comments refer to this.)

After Charlie's comment (The answer is .. and my follow-up omment re: The answer is ...)  I have rethought.

Currently I do not have the time to explore this fully, but offer it as a means to a +ve or -ve solution.

Again I am presuming which are the Gold.  I am now suggesting GroupA and GroupB hold 4 rings while GroupC (Table) has only 1.
Test#   GroupA GroupB GroupC     Result
  1        GGG4   5678      9             Heavy left - no other validity.
  2        9GGG   4567      8             Heavy left - ?????
  3        89GG   G456      7             Still Heavy Left - ??!!??

I have a sense that if I analysed what the potential elements could have been, rather that my 'precast' arangement, there may be a solution.

Posted by brianjn on 2005-06-26 04:20:04