Problem 1154. Identify the heavier bag

Created by HARISANKAR PS

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There are N=2^n bags of rice looking alike, N-1 of which have equal weight and one is slightly heavier. The weighing balance is of unlimited capacity. Using the balance, the minimum number of weighing required to identify the heavier bag is?

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Last Solution submitted on Oct 10, 2019

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3 Comments

@bmtran (Bryant Tran) on 31 Dec 2012

I think it only takes 5 weighings when N=128. Am I incorrect?

Alfonso Nieto-Castanon on 31 Dec 2012

agree 5 weighing for N=128 (worst case scenario you reduce to 43 15 5 2 1 after each consecutive weighing)

trekker on 2 Jan 2013

the last test case provided by the author is wrong: should be 5 since log(128)/log(3) < 5.

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Solution 183475

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Dan on 8 Jan 2013

Correct the test suite

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Problem 1154. Identify the heavier bag

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Problem 1154. Identify the heavier bag

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