Five pumpkins are weighed two at a time in all ten sets of two. The weights are recorded as 16, 18,19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 26, and 27 pounds. All individual weights are also integers.

How much does each pumpkin weigh?

7,9,11,12,15
mostly you can see that the smallest must be greater than 5 and less than 8(It has to be less than 8 because if it were greater than 8, 16 would be impossible.) or it just wouldn't work. 5 and 6 are really easy to check to make sure don't work for the smallest. That leaves 7. building up from there is pretty simple. 7+9=16 7+11=18 9+11=20 7+12=19 9+12=21 11+12=23 7+15=22 9+15=24 11+15=26 12+15=27

Posted by Jon on 2003-05-01 09:41:01