Puzzle: Solve this problem or die.

[Mark The Homer]

I died. See if you can do better than me. No cheating, no googling.

You have two medications in tablet form, ten pills in one bottle and ten in another. Every day for ten days, you must take one pill of each, or you will drop dead.

On day five you accidentally pour two pills from one bottle and one pill from the other bottle onto the table, and you can't tell them apart. All are identical white tablets.

You can't get another prescription. What do you do?

[TheDoyler23]

Dissolve all of the pills in water, then drink an equal amount each day?

[twa]

Dissolve all of the pills in water, then drink an equal amount each day?

That or grind them up and divide equally into six parts(assuming they don't interact)

probably gonna be nasty going down ;)

[Larry]

Count how many pills are left in the bottles.

[Mark The Homer]

Dissolve all of the pills in water, then drink an equal amount each day?


That or grind them up and divide equally into six parts(assuming they don't interact)

probably gonna be nasty going down ;)

I believe the two answers above would both work and your lives would be saved. Well done! (although neither of these were the answer given that I read)


Count how many pills are left in the bottles.That won't help.

[twa]

Count how many pills are left in the bottles.

5 in one, 4 in the other..but that does not help does it?
(which is probably why pills are distinguishable from each other)

I hate puzzles and pills...did I die?

[DGreenistheBest]

No, Larry is on to something. Count the pills, then take a pill out of the bottle that had more. Now you have four. Cut all four in half, being careful not to mix the halves. Now take 4 halves today, take the other 4 tomorrow.

[twa]

I believe the two answers above would both work and your lives would be saved. Well done! (although neither of these were the answer given that I read)

That won't help.

You ain't gonna give us the answer given? :redpunch: :finger: :chug: :cry:

I'm a bit obsessive with unanswered puzzles,probably why I usually avoid them.

[The Villi Phanatic]

No, Larry is on to something. Count the pills, then take a pill out of the bottle that had more. Now you have four. Cut all four in half, being careful not to mix the halves. Now take 4 halves today, take the other 4 tomorrow.

yeah, that would work, assuming of course the pills aren't extended or controlled release pills... you're probably gonna die from the side effects of the pills anyway :cool: but that's probably the answer mark was looking for

[Mr. S]

No, Larry is on to something. Count the pills, then take a pill out of the bottle that had more. Now you have four. Cut all four in half, being careful not to mix the halves. Now take 4 halves today, take the other 4 tomorrow.

You still run the risk of taking 4 halves that are of the same pill. Or even 3 of the same pill, thus not getting a full pill of the other pill. Isn't that right?

[Mark The Homer]

No, Larry is on to something. Count the pills, then take a pill out of the bottle that had more. Now you have four. Cut all four in half, being careful not to mix the halves. Now take 4 halves today, take the other 4 tomorrow.Yes, that would have worked. If he had done that. :)

Okay, I'll give up the given answer - from Ask Marilyn in Today's Parade.

Set the three tablets aside and continue taking the medication as prescribed until only one tablet is left. Then cut all four tablets in half. Take one half from each tablet on the 9th day and the rest on the 10th day.

We got some smart mother ****ers on this site!

[Mark The Homer]

You still run the risk of taking 4 halves that are of the same pill. Not if you don't mix them up.

[The Villi Phanatic]

You still run the risk of taking 4 halves that are of the same pill. Or even 3 of the same pill, thus not getting a full pill of the other pill. Isn't that right?


nah, when you cut the pills in half, just put one half in a day 1 pile and the other half in a day 2 pile... you don't know if a given pill is type X or type Y but that's irrelevant as by doing this with each of the 4 pills, you know you're getting 2 type X halves and 2 type Y halves for each day

[twa]

No, Larry is on to something. Count the pills, then take a pill out of the bottle that had more. Now you have four. Cut all four in half, being careful not to mix the halves. Now take 4 halves today, take the other 4 tomorrow.

Now that would be just like Larry ,dividing things up and making me count and playing the odds with my life ;)

I prefer the simpler approach,plus I get to take my frustration out mashing things. :silly:

[DGreenistheBest]

nah, when you cut the pills in half, just put one half in a day 1 pile and the other half in a day 2 pile... you don't know if a given pill is type X or type Y but that's irrelevant as by doing this with each of the 4 pills, you know you're getting 2 type X halves and 2 type Y halves for each day


Not if you don't mix them up.

Right.

[Mr. S]

Not if you don't mix them up.

Right now I see it. Cut them up and separate them into piles.

[twa]

I'm missing something, dividing them into halves increases the odds of getting the correct dosage .

But you still have one pile with two halves of known value and six of unknown.
taking one half from the known you still have take 3 halves from the unknown.

I give up. :silly:

added
OK,I can't let go.. are the 3 pills mixed at the start or not?

[DGreenistheBest]

I'm missing something, dividing them into halves increases the odds of getting the correct dosage .

But you still have one pile with two halves of known value and six of unknown.
taking one half from the known you still have take 3 halves from the unknown.

I give up. :silly:

added
OK,I can't let go.. are the 3 pills mixed at the start or not?

Okay, I'll try to explain it better. You have three pills and you don't know what they are. Two of one kind, one of the other. By counting the pills you have left, you can determine which type of pill you only have one of and add another one of those pills. Now you have four. You can even toss that one into the pile too, it doesn't matter if you know which one it is really.

So, take one pill and cut it in half. Put one half in Pile A and one in Pile B. Do this with each pill. You now have two piles. You know that two pills are type 1 and two pills are type 2. You also know that you have two halves each of types 1 and 2 in each pile now. Therefore, even if you didn't know what the pills where originally, by default you now have a whole pill of each type in each pile, and therefore 2 days worth of correct dosage.

[jujuskinsfan]

I die ....lol, I hate problems

[twa]

Thanks for the effort DGreenistheBest.
I still had to go ask my wife to see I was overlooking separating each pill into piles consecutively. :doh1:

[DGreenistheBest]

Thanks for the effort DGreenistheBest.
I still had to go ask my wife to see I was overlooking separating each pill into piles consecutively. :doh1:

:cheers: My wife is my ace in the hole, too!

[PokerPacker]

for the pills that fell out, take one half of each of the pills and add a half of a pill from the bottle that lost less pills, that way you automatically just took the equivalent of one of each. next day take the remaining halves left-over and you're good.

hey, i feel kinda smart now.

[Mark The Homer]

I ran this puzzle by a bunch of people during easter dinner, all quite smart, nobody could figure it out - so for those that did, nice job!

[ldysknzfn1]

I hate riddles where you'll die if you're wrong..lol. My answer would have certainly killed me. So...no identical pills for me!

[jrockster21]

Dissolve all of the pills in water, then drink an equal amount each day?


That wouldn't work, because you would still have the potential for taking two of pill 1 on a given day.

Cutting the four remaining pills into halves on day 9 is the only way to solve the puzzle. :)

[PokerPacker]

That wouldn't work, because you would still have the potential for taking two of pill 1 on a given day.

Cutting the four remaining pills into halves on day 9 is the only way to solve the puzzle. :)
it doesn't really have to be day 9, you could just take out a pill from the bottle that is more-full and split 'em then.

[dfitzo53]

That wouldn't work, because you would still have the potential for taking two of pill 1 on a given day.
Not if you dissolve all the pills, including the ones remaining in the bottles.