Question

Venkat is a silver trader who uses a balance to measure the weights of the items he buys and sells. He needs to buy a new set of weights for the balance, such that every integer mass from 1 g to 50 g can be obtained as some combination of the weights in the set. Each individual weight could have any mass from 1 g to 50 g, and he can buy as many weights of a given mass as he likes. In the interest of saving money, Venkat wants to buy as few weights as possible while still meeting this need. How many weights should Venkat buy

Answer 1

7 weights

He should buy the following weights

40 , 20 , 10 , 5 , 4, 2 , 1