Question

What is the maximum number of objects you can weigh if you have four distinct weights.

Answer 1

let us consider we have 4 distinct weights.A,B,C,D now we can estimate the maximum number of objects.weight can be taken as A,B,C,D=4.
A+B,B+C,C+D,D+A=4.
A+B+C,A+B+D,B+C+D,B+C+A,C+D+A,C+D+A,C+D+B,D+A+B,D+A+C,=8
A+B+C+D=1
---------total 17 possible out comes.

Answer 2

Answer:

You can simply apply combinations and if you don't know how it is used,

consider 4 distinct weights A, B, C and D.

Step-by-step explanation:

Now you can take one, two, three and four weights at a time.

(i)Taking one weight at a time :

Possibilities - Only A, Only B, Only C and Only D.

Thus, 4 ways.

(ii) Taking two weights at a time :

Possibilities - A+B, B+C, C+D, A+D, A+C & B+D

Thus, 6 ways.

(iii) Taking three weights at a time :

Possibilities - A+B+C, A+B+D, A+C+D & B+C+D

Thus, 4 ways.

(iv) Taking four weights at a time :

Possibilities - A+B+C+D

Thus, ONLY 1 way.

So, in total there are (4 + 6 + 4 + 1) 15 ways.