Can you solve the four kings' gold riddle? - Tim Ricchuiti
Imagine four kings reward you with a hundred gold coins of 100 grams each. For reference, that's about $2.2 million dollars of gold. But you've been warned ahead of time by a court jester that some of the kings may be a little dishonest. Specifically, they may have shaved off 1 gram from each of the hundred gold coins they're going to give you. This could cost you a bunch of money, so obviously you want to figure out which if any of the kings are shorting you. If you can figure out which kings are dishonest, they'll make good on the full reward, but if you wrongly accuse any of them, you get nothing.
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You do have a solar-powered digital scale, and you can weigh any of the four kings' gold coins in any combination you want, but it's a cloudy day, so you've only got enough juice for a single weighing. Is it possible to weigh the gold in some combination just one time and figure out exactly which of the kings is holding out?
One thing I love about this riddle is how it rewards critical thinking and problem solving. There are a number of extensions to the riddle as well. Once you have a solution for the four kings problem, what is the most number of kings you could discern between using your solution? Could you also figure out who's trying to cheat you among five kings? Six kings? What's the upper limit?
#riddle #puzzle #placevalue
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