The Smallest Number

Puzzler time.

This is one of our many coin puzzlers.

Here it is.

Imagine that you have in front of you 50 coins. All the same type of coin.

They all look exactly alike, except one of them is a fake. And because it's a fake, it weighs an ounce than a real coin.

So if you were to put it on a scale, it would be immediately obvious which was the phony coin, because of the imbalance that would be present on the scale.

So you have 50 coins and a scale. One coin is fake.

You have no weights or anything else. Just the coins and the scale.

The puzzler is, what is the smallest number of weighing that you can do to determine which coin is the fake?

Good luck.

Answer the Puzzler »

Remember last week's puzzler?

Things in the Trunk

Many years ago, our infamous mechanic Krusty, was still dating and looking for a companion.

One day, he decides to take one of his dates out for a little ride in the country one evening.

They take a nice drive. Park his car and go off by the lake to take a romantic walk through the countryside.

They come back an hour later after their walk around the lake, and to his horror, he has left the headlights on, and they are a mere shadow of their former selves. They're dim and weak.

So he runs to the car, leaving his date at the lake, turns off the headlights, tries to start the car.

Unfortunately, the car doesn't start.

Now, he knows that if he doesn't get her home on time, she will be in big trouble with her parents and she won't be able to see him again.

So he has to come up with something quick.

He opens the trunk to get his toolkit and anything else he has in there that might be of help.

In his trunk he has a few things. He has a large bottle of olive oil. He has a large package of Preperation H. He has a pair of pliers. And he has a pair of jumper cables, but alas, no one around to give him a jump.

And yet, in about five minutes, he has the car running, and the hint is that he used the pliers.

How did he do it?