Is there an answer for this, persay, or is it just a thought process evaluator?

 

You have 4 jars of pills. Each pill is a certain weight, except for contaminated pills contained in one jar, where each pill is weight + 1. How could you tell which jar had the contaminated pills in just one measurement?

I assume you use a balance to measure ?

I thought about all the different possible methods of measurement (ie. scale, balance, water displacement, etc). The it occurred to me that though the contaminate pills weigh more they could be smaller, the same size, or larger than the other pills depending on their density. If they weigh more and are larger then less of them will fit in the bottle. Weight may not necessarily change.

 

I think this is more a question to gauge problem solving methods. It doesn't seem to be reasonably answered with the given facts and guidelines.

No, there is an answer. And yes, it is a thought process evaluator, specifically an analytical one. No, it's not simple (like using a crazy 4 level pivoting scale).

 

And they are all the same size, I assume, it doesn't matter.

Its impossible unless you know the base weight of a single pill and a contaminated pill.

 

Assuming a regular pill weighs 1g and a contaminated weighs 2g..

 

You could take 1 pill from jar one, 2 pills from jar 2, 3 pills from jar 3 and 4 pills from jar 4. Put them all on the scale together.

 

If the contaminated pills are in jar one, the total weight will be 5g. If they are in jar two, the total weight will be 6g, if they are in jar 3, the total weight will be 7g...

Dammit. That's true, without the weight of a pill your just mesuring mass for no particualr reason.

Excellent deduction though Blike.

would you be terribly offended if I point out that it's "per se" and not "persay"? Sorry - just had to do it.

IMI got corrected

take one pill from a new jar each day, if you feel sick at all, you`ll know which jar is bad

daisy said in post #8 :

would you be terribly offended if I point out that it's "per se" and not "persay"? Sorry - just had to do it.

 

Not affended at all

You could take 1 pill from jar one, 2 pills from jar 2, 3 pills from jar 3 and 4 pills from jar 4. Put them all on the scale together.

 

measure the weight and u'll get a number.

divide that number by the number of pills ie. 10 and we examine the remainder.

if it is 1 than the contaminated pill is from jar 1

if it is 2 than the contaminated pill is from jar 2

if it is 3 than the contaminated pill is from jar 3

if it is 4 than the contaminated pill is from jar 4

You could take 1 pill from jar one' date=' 2 pills from jar 2, 3 pills from jar 3 and 4 pills from jar 4. Put them all on the scale together.

 

measure the weight and u'll get a number.

divide that number by the number of pills ie. 10 and we examine the remainder.

if it is 1 than the contaminated pill is from jar 1

if it is 2 than the contaminated pill is from jar 2

if it is 3 than the contaminated pill is from jar 3

if it is 4 than the contaminated pill is from jar 4[/quote']

 

Thats the correct solution, I wrote one with exactly the same principal but with Gold coins as the items - well done

 

1 from the first, the ammount will be 1 more than you expected, 2 will be 2 more than you expected and it can go on and on...

 

Cheers,

 

Ryan Jones