No calculus required: Suppose you are in a chemistry lab and a fire breaks out.

Question

No calculus required: Suppose you are in a chemistry lab and a fire breaks out. There are 12J^2gkers of black powder on your lab station, one of which is flame retardant, and the other 11 are gun powder. The fire extinguisher in the room is missing, and you have no other way to put out the fire. The flame retardant powder looks, smells, and tastes identical to the gun powder, but has a different weight (I don't remember if it is heavier or lighter; I was never good at Chemistry). You have an old-school, balance-style scale, which can tell you which of two quantities is heavier, the scale can hold any number of jars on eastside, and you have enough time to do exactly three measurements. How can you determine which of beakers To spread on the fire without fear of blowing yourself up?

Explanation / Answer

devide the 12 beakers in groups of 6 and six

now use a weighning balance keep 6beakers on one side and 6 balls on other side of balance if the ball is heavier then the other balls then take the 6 balls which are havier and now devide them to 3 beakers each as pair and measure the weight take up the heavier pair and add one more ball to it so that there will be 4 balls

devide the 4 beakers in to 2beakers containing pairs and measure the weight consider the heavier pair devide the into one one balls and take the measure ment ,heavir will be the required beaker

1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12 --->1,2,3,4,5,6--->(1)

                                       ---> 7,8,9,10.11.12-->(2)

measure the weight of (1) and (2) pairs

if u consider the beaker required is heavier then consider the pair which is heavier

then devide the pair with higher weight into 3 balls as one pair

measure the weight and consider the higher weighted pair add one normal weight beaker to the 3 beakers pair

and devide them in to 2 beakers as one pair and weigh them consider the higher weight one and and devide the pair into one each and measure the weight consider the higher weight one as the required one

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