# New riddle



## nealtw (Nov 2, 2012)

You have won first prize in the Pirate's Den contest. You get to choose one of twenty bags of gold coins, each bag has well more than one hundred one ounce coins. Nineteen bags have fake coins that weigh 1/10th ounce less than the real ones. You also have a scale so you can weigh them except it's one of those bus station scales that works only when you insert a penny and you only have one penny. When the weight on the scale changes the window closes on the scale.

People like Oldog are way to fast so please just let us know when you have it 
and bring your answer on Tues.:hide:


----------



## Wuzzat? (Nov 3, 2012)

nealtw said:


> twenty bags
> each bag has . . .one ounce coins
> Nineteen bags have fake coins that weigh 1/10th ounce less than the real ones


and each fake bag also has real coins that weigh the full ounce?

Never mind: I would have never come up with the method for finding the good bag.

You need to change more keywords in your statement of the problem to prevent a web search from hitting on this solved problem.


----------



## nealtw (Nov 4, 2012)

It's just like answers in the back of the book.  Really successful people cheat without getting cought.


----------



## oldognewtrick (Nov 5, 2012)

See, really smart people don't have to _know_ the answer, they just have to know how to _find_ the answer...


----------



## Wuzzat? (Nov 5, 2012)

Here's one I couldn't get.

A piece of ice drops into a lake that is at 0C such that 0.5% of the ice melts due to the impact.  
How far did the piece fall?

Ans: IIRC, 177 meters.


----------



## Admin (Nov 5, 2012)

I'm a pirate. Take it all.


----------



## nealtw (Nov 5, 2012)

I'm a pirate. Take it all. 
19 people waiting their turn, watching you closely.


----------



## Admin (Nov 6, 2012)

nealtw said:


> I'm a pirate. Take it all.
> 19 people waiting their turn, watching you closely.



I'm a pirate, more people watching only helps with my sea cred.


----------



## nealtw (Nov 6, 2012)

You could hire a con man they always have devious ways of doing things.


----------



## Admin (Nov 7, 2012)

So what's the answer to this riddle?


----------



## nealtw (Nov 7, 2012)

Austin. If I send you the answer, can you put it somewhere with a link here as some people may not want the answer givin to them right away. And Oldog is still counting claws.


----------



## Admin (Nov 8, 2012)

I can do that.


----------



## nealtw (Nov 8, 2012)

I did that.


----------



## Admin (Nov 9, 2012)

If I line up all the bags in a row and consider the bags as bag 1, bag 2 and so on.
If I take 1 coin from bag one 
and 2 coins from bag two
and 3 coins from bag three
and continue for all twenty bags
and pile them neatly on the scale being carefull not to mix them up
I will have twenty piles of coins from 1 coin to a pile of twenty coins
I will have 210 coins on the scale if they were all fake they will weigh 10% less than 210 onces or 189 onces. Now if I use the penny and find the actual weight is somewhere between 189.1 for bag one and 191 onces for bag twenty. 
Let's say it weighs 190.9
I would subtract 189 from 19.9 and have 1.9 onces and multiply that by 10
The answer would be bag 19

If you would like to see the answer to this riddle highlight the white space above this message.


----------



## ckelly10 (Nov 16, 2012)

Hmmm whats the answer....

"I'm a pirate. Take it all."

Sounds good to me


----------

