Yes, that is the answer to the classic problem. HOWEVER, it's not the
answer to the problem that was stated : "Which _bag_ is short money".
Your solution only identifies which tax collector is shorting the money,
not which bag is short (unless by chance it happens to be the one bag).
Since the problem as stated seems insolvable, I wonder if Mike Lee made
a small (but important) mistake in stating it.
Randall
Paul Weston wrote:
>
> take one bag of gold from the first tax collector
> 2 bags from the second
> 3 from the third
> etc
Mike Lee - Team Banana Racing wrote:
>
> "You are a king with a balance scale. You have ten tax collectors, but you
> suspect that one has been stealing 10 grams from every 100 grams of gold that
>he
> collects. How do you tell for certain which bag is short money with only one
>use
> of the scale? Things you should know: you can only place or take away bags
>all
> at once (in other words, you can not put them all on and take them off one by
>one,
> or vice versa)."
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