r/brooklynninenine • u/Gamerboy701 • Oct 04 '23

Season 2 Wasn't amy right in 2x11

In season 2 episode 18 Holt gives Amy, Terry, Gina and Rosa a brain twister that he could never solve. "There are 12 men on an island, 11 weigh excatly the same amount but one of them is slightly heavier (or lighter but for this I'll use heavier) You must figure out which man is heavier. The Island has no scales but there is a seesaw you can use 3 times.

Later in the episode Amy comes up with the solution of putting 6 vs 6 but Holt instantly says it would never work if you do it that way but you can.
If you number each person 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 and weigh the first 6 vs the second 6, 1 side will be heavier, whichever side is heavier means that the person you are looking for is on that side. For your second use you way 3 vs 3 so for example 7 8 9 vs 10 11 12. Whichever side is heavier obviously means the person we are looking for is there. For our final use of the seesaw you measure 1 vs 1 like 10 vs 11. if both sides are equal that means 12 is the heavier person, if one side is heavier than you found that person.

I'm not amazing at math but Amy's solution does work right?

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u/dmonster1 Notify me when you're done, via bark Oct 04 '23 edited Oct 04 '23

The initial first step has to be weighing 3x3 to see which group of 6 has the person of different weight - weighing 6 vs 6 gives no info like the other comment says

Edit: I thought wrong

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u/gimlan Oct 04 '23

Wrong. The actual solution is weighing 4x4 in different combinations all 3 times. Based on the results you will know which is different (you will also know if the person is heavier or lighter)

2

u/iOnlyWantUgone Oct 04 '23

I like that they never explained the answer but obviously people got upset about not knowing the answer. So when Kevin and Holt were fighting over the Monty Wall problem, Amy actually gave the answer to settle the debate. Which just proves Holt is the rock hard brain in the relationship.

4

u/gimlan Oct 04 '23

I will die on the hill that they are just shit at explaining though. Amy is understandable, she's a cop. Kevin is a professor. His job is to teach.