PUZZLE NEEDS ANSWER
Chris Caramella
He is to take only one each per day. If he takes 2 of the B's he will
die. Okay, this person shook one of the A's into his hand, however when
he was shaking out the B pill, 2 accidentally fell out. Now the pills
look exactly alike, taste the same, are identical in markings. In other
words, one cannot tell them apart. What is this person to do, what with
3 pills of undetermined make-up in his hand?
WHATS THE SOLUTION?
-The-FISH-
Chris Caramella <ccara...@home.com> wrote in message
news:rNKw4.51532$_G1.6...@news1.sttls1.wa.home.com...
He should just dispose of these thre pills and and take another pill from
each bottle.
I guess if you dont want to waste the pills the alternative is too take
another 3 pills out from the 'A' bottle and keep them seperate from the 3 he
already has.
so he now has;
Group A Group B
A,B,B A,A,A
Considering he wont die if he takes 2 A's as it is not stated in your
question then he should now just take one pill from each group over the next
few days so the three cominations he will end up with will be;
A & B
A & B
A & A
The question is does he HAVE to take one of each pill each day?
If he does then the method above wont work.
-The-FISH-
" Underneath the H20,
There is a place where fishies go,
Where they can play and be free,
And laugh at folk like you and me"
René Kragh Pedersen
>
> A person has two pill bottles, one marked Pill A, the other Pill B.
> He is to take only one each per day. If he takes 2 of the B's he will
> die. Okay, this person shook one of the A's into his hand, however when
> he was shaking out the B pill, 2 accidentally fell out. Now the pills
> look exactly alike, taste the same, are identical in markings. In other
> words, one cannot tell them apart. What is this person to do, what with
> 3 pills of undetermined make-up in his hand?
>
> WHATS THE SOLUTION?
SPOILER
SPOILER
SPOILER
Put them aside and take some new ones.
--
René Kragh Pedersen.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Cool! A cloud-factory!
- Jens Møllgaard Jensen, In Real Life.
Walter Prager
>
> A person has two pill bottles, one marked Pill A, the other Pill B.
> He is to take only one each per day. If he takes 2 of the B's he will
> die. Okay, this person shook one of the A's into his hand, however when
> he was shaking out the B pill, 2 accidentally fell out. Now the pills
> look exactly alike, taste the same, are identical in markings. In other
> words, one cannot tell them apart. What is this person to do, what with
> 3 pills of undetermined make-up in his hand?
>
> WHATS THE SOLUTION?
I know what I would do in a real-life situation: sue the doctor who prescribed
me pills that would kill me:-)
No, of course I would just throw the three pills out as has already been
suggested. Another alternative (which has also been suggested) is to
put-aside 3 A pills into a second group, then take one pill from each group
for the next three days. Won't work if you *need* one A plus one B each and
every day, but you can modify that to put aside 6 A pills (and then take two
pills from the second group plus one from the first). However, noth schemes
will reduce the number of A pills faster than B pills -- assuming that you
have X of each to start, and you have to take them for X days, none of the
above schemes would work.
So, what I would do is add two A pills to the mix, crush them and mix them
thoroughly. Then I would use the balance scale left over from the 12 coins
puzzle and measure out exactly two pills' worth of the mixture for the next
three days.
--
Walter Prager, Sr. S/W Designer| ||| "I don't have all the answers. In
TEL: (613) 599-3600 ext 6460 | |||||||| life, to be honest, I've failed as
EMAIL: wpr...@newbridge.com | ||||\||| much as I've succeeded. But I love
| ||||\\|| my wife, I love my life, and I wish
NEWBRIDGE NETWORKS CORP | ||||\\\| you *my* kind of success."
Kanata, Ontario, Canada | ||| Dicky Fox
mark edward hardwidge
> I know what I would do in a real-life situation: sue the doctor who
> prescribed me pills that would kill me:-)
Well, if you are taking pills that could potentially kill you,
and you are so careless/lazy that you can't be bothered to take them
one at a time, I think you're already asking for trouble!
> So, what I would do is add two A pills to the mix, crush them and
> mix them thoroughly.
That's a good solution. (although I think you mean one A pill,
so you have an equal amount of A and B) Now we'd need to know how
exactly you need one pill, and how well you can crush and mix the
pills, but you should end up alive unless there are crazy tolerances.
--
Mark E. Hardwidge
hard...@uiuc.edu
Carl G.
Chris Caramella wrote in message ...
>A person has two pill bottles, one marked Pill A, the other Pill B.
>He is to take only one each per day. If he takes 2 of the B's he will
>die. Okay, this person shook one of the A's into his hand, however when
>he was shaking out the B pill, 2 accidentally fell out. Now the pills
>look exactly alike, taste the same, are identical in markings. In other
>words, one cannot tell them apart. What is this person to do, what with
>3 pills of undetermined make-up in his hand?
>
>WHATS THE SOLUTION?
>
>
Spoiler
.
.
.
Spoiler
.
.
.
Spoiler
.
.
.
Spoiler
.
.
.
A solution where the person doesn't waste pills and takes the correct dosage
of both A and B:
Remove another pill from the "A" bottle and add it to the three in his hand
so that there are two A pills and two B pills in his hand. Break each of
these pills in half and eat one half of each pill. The person will have
taken two halves of an A pill and two halves of a B pill, which is
equivalent to taking one of each. The next day he would take the four
remaining halves.
Carl G.
Brian Gordon
Chris Caramella <ccara...@home.com> wrote:
>A person has two pill bottles, one marked Pill A, the other Pill B.
>He is to take only one each per day. If he takes 2 of the B's he will
>die. Okay, this person shook one of the A's into his hand, however when
>he was shaking out the B pill, 2 accidentally fell out. Now the pills
>look exactly alike, taste the same, are identical in markings. In other
>words, one cannot tell them apart. What is this person to do, what with
>3 pills of undetermined make-up in his hand?
>
>WHATS THE SOLUTION?
>
>
That's from the NPR show Car Talk a couple of weeks ago, and the solution is
slick. Add an A. Now you have 2 As and 2Bs. Keeping careful track of the
pieces, cut each pill in half, and gather together 1/2 from each pill. That
collection consists of 2 half As and 2 half Bs, which is a days dose, and the
remaining halves are tomorrow's dose.
--
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| Brian Gordon -->bri...@netcom.com<-- |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
Jamie Dreier
intended answer.
-Jamie
--
SpamGard: For real return address replace "DOT" with "."
Walter Prager
I think I got confused and for some reason was thinking 3 B pills and 1 A
pill. Of course, with just two Bs and an A you simply add another A and break
all of the pills in hald (as was posted already).
I just thought of another solution -- literally speaking, of course. Add
another A, then disolve all four pills in a glass of water. Drink half now,
and the other half tomorrow. This should silence the inevitable critics who
will say that it is impossible to aplit pills exactly 50-50, or to grind them
up and mix thoroughly.
Rich Grise
pills next time.