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Week 1 Homework

 
 
GouAlex的头像
Week 1 Homework
GouAlex - 2022年03月7日 Monday 19:42
 

Does anyone know how to do this problem?

What is the minimum number of weights which enable us to weight any integer number of grams of gold from 11 to 10001000 on a standard balance with two pans if you are only allowed to use the weights on one side of the pan? Explain your answer using number bases.

Thanks.

 
LensmireJohn的头像
Re: Week 1 Homework
LensmireJohn - 2022年03月8日 Tuesday 10:27
 

Hi Alex,

Let me give both an example of weights and a hint for this problem.

As an example, suppose you have the weights of $5$, $8$, and $13$ grams. Using one of these weights you can get $5$, $8$, or $13$ grams, with two weights you can get $13$, $18$, or $21$ grams, and using all three gives $26$ grams. Thus, in total you can get$$5, 8, 13, 18, 21, \text{ or } 26$$grams. (Note $13$ we can get two ways for later.)

As a hint for the actual problem, try to work your way up. Clearly you need to get $1$ gram, so you need a $1$ gram weight. How can we $2$ grams? Well either we add another $1$ gram weight or a $2$ gram weight. To avoid duplicates, suppose you add a $2$ gram weight. Now we can get $1$, $2$, or $1+2 = 3$ grams, so $4$ grams is the smallest weight we cannot get so far. What if we then add a $4$ gram weight?

Try to continue from here and see if you can find a pattern.

Hope this helps!