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Topic: Weighing an Elephant (Read 714 times) |
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maryl
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Hundreds of years ago, a king of an Asian country who lived in a port city,
received a visit from a king of adjacent country, his friend.
The visitor brought a present with him. It was an elephant.
The visitor gave it and said, "Can you measure the elephant's rough weight in
a day?"
The king of the port city consulted with the retainers. "We just have beam
scales weighing bags. Do you have any ideas?"
One vassal said, "I can make the relevant measuring equipment assembling
large levers and pulleys, your majesty."
"Can you make it in a day?"
"......I can't."
Another vassal said, "How about weighing in pieces after killing the elephant?"
"I won't."
At last they found the method and measured the elephant's approximate
weight without sophisticated devices.
What was the method?
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BNC
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Re: Weighing an Elephant
« Reply #1 on: Jul 13th, 2003, 11:47pm » |
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How about this:
Dig a hole large enough to hold the elephant, and fill it with water. Place the elephant in it, and collect the water that spil out. Weight the water ==> get elephant's weight.
Oh, wait, it can be even simpler:
take a boat (it is a port city after all). place elephant on boat. Mark water level of boat. take elephant off boat. Place other smaller weights (maybe the bags the beam scales are made for), until the water level is the same. Weight the smaller weigt one at a time.
This will give a rough estimate, but it may be suficient for this problem.
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| « Last Edit: Jul 13th, 2003, 11:59pm by BNC » |
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How about supercalifragilisticexpialidociouspuzzler [Towr, 2007]
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wowbagger
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Re: Weighing an Elephant
« Reply #2 on: Jul 14th, 2003, 5:16am » |
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BNC, I think you should take care of a possible exception: the mark of the water level could be above the ship's rail. 
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| « Last Edit: Jul 14th, 2003, 5:17am by wowbagger » |
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"You're a jerk, <your surname>!"
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BNC
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Re: Weighing an Elephant
« Reply #3 on: Jul 14th, 2003, 8:42am » |
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A couple more:
1. mark unloaded water line. Place elephant on 'strong enough' boat  . Mark water line. Send both marks to royal mathematician: "Calculate weight of elephant within the day, or else...".
2. Pay the elephant keeper off to tell you the elephant's weight.
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How about supercalifragilisticexpialidociouspuzzler [Towr, 2007]
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maryl
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Re: Weighing an Elephant
« Reply #4 on: Jul 14th, 2003, 12:52pm » |
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on Jul 13th, 2003, 11:47pm, BNC wrote:How about this:
Dig a hole large enough to hold the elephant, and fill it with water. Place the elephant in it, and collect the water that spil out. Weight the water ==> get elephant's weight.
Oh, wait, it can be even simpler:
take a boat (it is a port city after all). place elephant on boat. Mark water level of boat. take elephant off boat. Place other smaller weights (maybe the bags the beam scales are made for), until the water level is the same. Weight the smaller weigt one at a time.
This will give a rough estimate, but it may be suficient for this problem.
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Ok, smart guy, so I should have put it in the Easy section.
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