solved solid gold, 7 was just a typo

[Ghost Post]

ok first of all 7 was a typo, you put 7 bars, 1 from each vault, on the scale and look at their weight, removing one at a time notice if the scale went down by 9 or 10, if it went down by 9 the bar was a counterfeit, if it went down by ten it was a real bar, it is simple subtraction people

[QuikSand]

If 7 was a typo, then why are you still working with 7 vaults?

And doesn't the notion of marking the amount with each bar added/removed from the scale both (a) intuitively violate the notion of "one weighing" as well as (b) turn this into not much of a puzzle at all?

It just seems to make a whole lot of sense to me to say that the phrase "the other three" was the typo, and that it meant "the other four."

If the practical puzzle layout is: 7 vaults, exactly 3 with fakes, only 1 weighing, and no trickery, do it with the fewest bricks... then, we have a pretty interesting and challenging puzzle of the sort that this site seems to be all about. The solution (hopefully the best solution?) to that puzzle us been worked out in the longer thread, and elsewhere. You have to search a bit amidst all the speculation about incremental weighings and 3+3=7 stuff.

[This message has been edited by QuikSand (edited 03-01-2001).]

[Ghost Post]

weighing all 7 bricks then removing them one by one is in fact one weigh in, then removing it, slowly yes, but we aren't picking up the indivual bricks, weighing them, comparing, and saying "ok these 3 are different, they must be fake" this question had the simplicity of the monkey one where your object was how to figure out how to hit the monkey falling out of a tree.

[Ghost Post]

i still believe the fact that 3+3=7 was typo, and in fact i was wrong in stating that 7 was a typo, it was in fact the number 3 in which the error, i believe, was made.

[happymath]

When I read "one weighing", it sounds to me like the guards put all the bars to be weighed in a bucket and then the bucket is placed on the scale. And the bars are then removed all at once, too.

But more to the point, I agree with QuikSand. Digging through the wording to find shortcuts makes this kind of puzzle too boring, in my opinion. Cuz without the shortcuts, it's a neat little puzzle.