Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
From: hoey@AIC.NRL.Navy.Mil (Dan Hoey)
Date: 7 Aug 92 21:06:42 GMT
Subject: Re: Gummy Snipes (spoiler)

cl...@remus.rutgers.edu (Chris Long):

: Spike has six cartons of gummy snipes.  Some or all of the cartons
: may contain imitation gummy snipes, which weigh more or less than
: real gummy snipes, this difference being exactly the same for all
: such snipes.  Given that a real gummy snipe has a mass of 10 grams
: and using a scale only twice, what is the minimum number of gummy
: snipes Spike would need to use in order to determine which cartons
: contain contain real gummy snipes and which cartons contain
: imitations?

Nice.  My program tells me he needs 28 snipes.  Weigh 1,2,2,5,5,0 and
0,2,1,1,8,10.  I haven't yet verified this by hand.

Dan Hoey
Hoey@AIC.NRL.Navy.Mil