This one is not so easy

You have 16 balls (poolballs for exemple), 8 wite, 8 red. All the balls
have the same weight except fore one, this one ball weights more or
less than the others. You also have a balance like in the old days with
to plates that keep each other "in balance". You may use the balance
three times and you must find the ball that has a different weight then
the other 15 balls. Also you must be able to tell if he is heavier or
lighter then the other balls. (Sorry for my Englisch, I hope this is clear).
Joost

Sorry, I hope no one didn't put to much time in it to find the answer,
because I tried to spell out the solution myself and noticed that it isn't
possible. I made a mistake in the number of the balls, there are only
12 balls (6 red, 6 wite) and not 16 balls. So 12 balls, 1 heavier or
lighter, 1 balance that you may use 3 times, find the ball with different
weigth and tell if he is heavier or lighter. Again sory for the error. Joost

No problem Joost, except we don't use gender in English, so a pool ball is 'it'... but, you know
what, I really like it as 'he', you should keep using it!

Actually, we do use gender in English, just not for pool balls. A ship or
plane is always "she" and a car may be "he" or "she" depending on
the owner.

Anyway, I don't see how it is mathmatically possible to solve this
problem in only three weighings. Even if you split the balls into colors,
one will be different than the other but you won't know which is
abberant.

Coyote

There is a solution, and I will give it in one week (if no one didn't gave
the right answer before, of course)

I don't know the solution, but something tells me that knowing the colour of the balls is
irrelevant. I would label the balls 1 to 12 before I started so I didn't get confused.

You're right the colour is irrelevant. Every good puzzle contains some
irrelevant information to put you on the wrong track

There are two kinds of gender at work here. The first is grammatical gender, which is an
intrinsic part of the specific word used; the second is a kind of soft gender based on the
meaning of the word and the context in which it is used. Many European languages use the
first system. The grammatical gender determines adjectival endings, articles and so on. The
grammatical gender sometimes, but not always, corresponds to the meaning (eg le pere
(masculine, the father) makes sense, but la patrie (feminine, the FATHERland) does not.)
However, this system simply does not exist in English; when we learn a new word, we do not
have to learn its gender. This means we use 'it' for all words not ascribed a gender by the
second system.

The second system only overrides the first with words like 'she' 'his' and 'hers', and even then
only in certain cases. In English, this system is compulsory for words referring to adult
human beings (a lawyer is always 'he' or 'she'😉 and for words which refer to children of a
specific sex (ie boys and girls), or for whom the name is given. It is optional for animals,
words like 'baby' and 'child', and also things that are perceived to have some kind of
personality, even if they technically do not (ships, planes, trains, cars, countries etc). I
imagine something similar happens in other languages, even ones that have a grammatical
system of genders. However, soft gender cannot be used in these languages to 'neutralise'
the grammatical gender of a word: in German der Tisch (masculine, the table) is always 'er'
(which also means he), never 'es' (the neuter equivalent).

So in conclusion, if you called a pool ball 'Dave', then it would be a 'he'. If you think it's just
an inanimate pool ball, it's an 'it'.

>> So in conclusion, if you called a pool ball 'Dave', then it would be
a 'he'. If you think it's just an inanimate pool ball, it's an 'it'. <<

Don't you think the pool ball might take offense to being called that?

--Rein

What is that supposed to mean?? Now I have offended the pool balls
of the world?

Dave

I'm just trying to uphold the rights of repressed pool balls everywhere.

--Rein

I can think of alot worse thing for a pool ball to be called
than "Dave"..hehehe

Dave

I can't.

--Rein
(joke!)

Oh well...I guess I can be the butt of a joke today..hehehe

Dave

ok, ok... I'll play nice. 🙂

--Rein