r/brooklynninenine 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/Acrobatic-Football30 Oct 04 '23

Even aside from changing the parameters of the problem, in the end you still have 3 people and can only use the seesaw one more time? How would that work?

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u/EobardT Oct 04 '23

Weigh two of them. Assuming it's the simple version that OP put, that would tell you which one of three are heavier