Finding the heaviest of N objects using M scales
- by cpprulez
We have N objects and M scales. It's up to us what the objects are, and we need to position the objects on the scales so that it is undoubtful which is the heaviest object. For example, if we have 3 objects: "a", "b", "c" and 2 scales, one possible solution is "a" "b", "b" = "c" (here "a" is the heaviest). I need an algorithm which generates such solutions given N and M. Also let's assume that "a" is always the heaviest object.
I've lost a few hours figuring out how to do it, but no matter what I figure out, there's always cases which I miss. For example, another solution is: "a" + "c" = 2 * "b", "a" "c".
