Math Is Fun Forum

vijayalex

Member

Registered: 2009-05-26

Posts: 1

Regarding the 12 pool balls question on the puzzles website.

Acc. to the question you have 12 pool balls, 1 ball is heavier or lighter and you have to figure out which ball is the odd one out within 3 attempts on a pan balance.

Charles Naumann had posted an awesome solution that works great. I was wondering if anybody had some clue as to how he came up with that solution.

Here's a link to the actual problem and the solution.
http://www.mathsisfun.com/puzzles/weighing-pool-balls-solution.html

thanks,
Vj

luca-deltodesco

Member

Registered: 2006-05-05

Posts: 1,470

Re: Regarding the 12 pool balls question on the puzzles website.

finding solutions to problems like these usually tend to come from natural intuition and experimentation, thinking about the problem; thinking of a possible solution, and seeing if you can improve it, or come up with an even totally different solution etc.

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