Finding the odd one out

We as your Estimator committee are thrilled to hereby present you with our latest rubric: nothing less than the most exciting riddles! Impress your friends, family and fellow econometricians with your problem-solving skills and earn yourself a place in the FAECTOR hall-of-fame (and yes, I just made that up).

Our first riddle comes in many forms, but we present it as it is told in the series Brooklyn 99, which I can by the way really recommend. It goes as follows: 

There is an island with 12 islanders.
All of the islanders individually weigh exactly the same amount, except for one, who either weighs more or less than the other 11.
You must use a see-saw to figure out whose weight is different, and you may only use the see-saw 3 times.
There are no scales or other weighing device on the island.
How can you find out which islander is the one that has a different weight?

 

 Please post your comments in the comment section below, under the Facebook post, or if you do not want to publicly share your innovative solving method email us at estimator@faector.nl

About this article

Written by:
  • Geert Oosterbroek
| Published on: Dec 29, 2017