Suppose you had eight billiard balls, one of them is slightly heavier, but the only way to tell is by putting it on a scale against the others. What's the fewest number of times you'd have to use the scale to find the heavier ball?

This is a nice one....
Give it a shot to who wants to try out and if anyone wants the answer mail me..

From India, Mumbai
Dear Trishant
The answer is 3. Put 4 balls on each scale one scale will be heavier.
Take the balls in heavier scale and then put 2 in each again one will be heavier.
Take these 2 and put in separate scale.
You will know which ball is heavier.

From India, Pune
Dear Trishant,
The answer is 2.
Step 1 : Put 3 balls on each scale then you will have 2 balls left over in your hand. If scale shows equal weight then goto step 2A else goto step 2B.
Step 2A : Scale is showing equale weight therefore heavier ball will be in your hand. Put both the balls (which you have in your hand) on each scale and you will get heavier one.
Step 2B : Take the balls from heavier scale and put 1 ball in each scale then you will have one ball left over in your hand. If scale shows equal weight then heavier ball will be in your hand otherwise scale will show the heavier one.
Regards

From United States, Cincinnati
Nice answer Adiiti....
Thanks to everyone else who liked the post im going to post others i know may or may not be as good..
Regards,
Trishant
Heres another one imagine you have 2 completely unmarked bottles of exactly 3 and 5 litres and have ample amount of water...
You are needed to fill exactly 4 litres in one of the bottles..
Its obvious it would be in the 5 litres how would you do it....
Hint: you can fill and empty the bottles as much as you want..

From India, Mumbai
Simple... Just pour out the water from both the bottles until it bocome exact half, then you will have 1.5 and 2.5 litres in both the bottles. Now you can fill 1.5 litter in another bottel. Regards
From United States, Cincinnati
Dear Aditi,
Actually, thats not the answer.
You need to fill and emplt both the jars a particular no of times. I have no patience to put down all the steps.
Check out the attachment. Something similar
Ok here it is
Fill 5 lts and empty it in 3 lts so 5 lts will have 2 ltr and 3 ltr will have 3 lts.
Then empty 3 lts and put 2 ltr from 5 lts in 3 ltr.
now 5 lts is empty and 3 ltr has 2 ltr in it
now fill 5 lts up and now transwer content to 3 lts without spilling.
what happens is 3 lts already has 2 ltr water in it and hence only one lts goes into it.
And 4 ltr water remain in the 5 ltr bottle
Hope you understand

From India, Pune
Attached Files (Download Requires Membership)
File Type: xls Cave - PUZZLE.xls (461.0 KB, 102 views)

To fill exact 4 litres in one bottle -
Fill the 3 litres bottle full then transfer the water into 5 litres bottle,
Again fill the 3 litres bottle full and carefully transfer the water into the 5 litres bottle. All the water won't go inside the 5 litres bottle. i.e., 1 litre will remain in the 3 litres bottle.
Throw the water off from the 5 litres bottle.
Pour the 1 litre which is there in the 3 litres bottle.
Fill the 3 litres can full with water. Pour the 3 litres of water to the 5 litres bottle which already contains 1 litre water.
In this way you have exact 4 litres water in the 5 litres bottle.

From India, Hyderabad
how do u knw u have exact half... you can never be sure that its exactly half... once u feel u have exact 4litres it will measured and has to be exact 4litres not a ml here and there.. think again..
From India, Mumbai
Nice answers ppl...
Next one...
Imagine you are stranded on an island and you have only 6cm of gold and a knife which can cut the gold only twice and after that the knife is also useless...
Then a man comes to you and offers you unlimited food everyday each day for one cm of gold each day. for eg. you give 1cm on the 1st day, 2cms total on the 2nd, 3cms on the 3rd and so on till you end up giving all the 6cms on the last day.
Now there are 2 questions;
1. In what propotions will you cut the gold,
2. How will you manage to give the gold as you can be fed each day, (P.S: Theres nothing as giving any advance amounts of gold or any loan basis.)
Hint: Give & Take policy also works here.

From India, Mumbai
Simple. First, fill up the 5 ltr bottle and from that fill the 3 ltr bottle fully. You have 2 ltrs remaining in the 5 ltr bottle. Next step is to empty the 3 ltr bottle. Pour the 2 ltrs remaining in the 5 ltr bottle in to the 3 ltr bottle. Now again fill the 5 ltr bottle fully. And finally pur water from the 5 ltr bottle to the 3 ltr bottle. Since the 3 ltr bottle already has 2 ltrs of water, it can take only 1 more ltr. That means there is 4 ltrs left in the 5 ltr bottle.
From India, Kochi
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