The 5 Bag O' Gold--a new wrinkle!
This enhancement was discovered by Justin Pierce, a student at Shasta High School. The teacher is Dave Robathan (DRobathan@aol.com)THANKS, Justin!
Presented by Cory M. Wisnia, A MendoWorld Science Tech Guy
cwisnia@mcn.org
Mendocino Middle & High School, Mendocino CA 95460
http://www.mcn.org/ed/cur/cw/cwhome.html
For those who don't know the original problem, (part of IMP3) it involves a King who has five bags of gold and suspects one of them might be a little light due to thievery. He asks his court mathematicians, who are using simple double pan weighing balances, to determine which bag is lighter in as few weighing as possible. 5? 4? 3? 2? I won't supply a solution to this problem, but rather add an enhancement developed by a student is Northern California .
Anyway, here is the enhancement: as the mathematicians are puzzling over a "best" answer, along come the Court Jester, on his bicycle. He listens to the problem, scratches his head, and then asks if anybody has a tape ruler and some string. They answer yes. He then tells them that he can solve the problem in just one weighing!
Can you figure out how he does it? It has NOTHING to do with his NOSE, BTW! If you try real hard and can't figure it out, e-mail me and I'll give you ONE hint! Thanks to a VERY imaginative HS math student, Justin Pierce, from up towards Redding CA! You can e-mail his teacher if you wish to send solutions directly. The teacher's name is Dave Robathan...(DRobathan@aol.com).
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