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Guest Message by DevFuse

12 Coins

Started by thepaulthomas, Aug 09 2007 12:56 AM

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1 reply to this topic

#1 thepaulthomas

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1 posts

Posted 09 August 2007 - 12:56 AM

Sorry if this has already been posted, I think it's a pretty well known one:

You are given twelve coins. They are completely identical in every respect, except that one of the coins is EITHER heavier OR lighter than all of the others, and you have no idea which. You also have a set of balancing scales. With only three uses of the scales (i.e. weighing some of the coins against some of the others and finding out which set is heavier than the other), how can you determine which coin is the odd one out and whether it is heavier or lighter?

I promise you, it can be done!