Expert: Rohit Agarwal - 8/25/2008

Question
I have had particular difficulty with this problem and I hope you may help. Instead of explaining it, I have inserted the actual picture.
<img src=http://a893.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/115/l_82d9b8e9f0f68595da63835fca45d5dc.jpg>
thanks, Ryan

Answer
The answer is as follows:

The solid triangle weighs 4
The solid trapezium weighs 8
The semi-solid circle weighs 7
The rectangle weighs 10
The pentagon weighs 9
The semi-solid square weighs 5
The solid oval weighs 11

I'm sure that given this information, you can easily find out the weight of the hexagon, so I'll leave it up to you.


For solving, assign each variable a shape. The form equation based on the fact that to balance perfectly, both sides of the balance should have the same weight. So, for each balance, sum up the weights on either side and equate them. You'll have 8 variables and lots of equations so solving them would not be a problem.

njoy!
Rohit