Geekdad Puzzle Of The Week: Ferengi Kindergarten Solution

Image by Flickr user mharrsch.
Image by Flickr user mharrsch.

Greetings Ferengi Business Kindergarten applicants. After reviewing millions – well, hundreds, but who’s counting besides me – of applications and using the latest in random number generator technology, the wired monkeys with dice again. The winner of the $50.00 ThinkGeek gift certificate is Lawrence Walton who used our friend algebra to get the correct answer of 24 Bars of gold pressed latinum

Puzzle: Nog has one bar, three cubes and twelve marbles all made of the same precious metal. He also has a balance scale to weigh the items. Here are the results of two of his weighings

  1. When he has the bar and three cubes on the left and twelve marbles on the right the scale is balanced.

He knows the bar is worth 9 bars of gold pressed Latinum by weight. How much is everything worth all together?

Lawrence’s solution to the puzzle: If we let x = the bar, y = a cube, and z = a marble then we have the following:

x + 3y = 12z

x = y + 8z y + 3y + 8z = 12z 4y + 8z = 12z 4y = 4z y = z

x + 3z = 12z x = 9z z = x/9

x = 9 bars of gold pressed Latinum z = 1 bar of gold pressed Latinum

So, the total value of everything is 24 bars of gold pressed Latinum (9 + 3(1) + 12(1) = 24).

Thanks to everyone who played this week. I don’t know know what Dave Banks has in store for you, but down here in Geekdad Puzzle Central I can hear him laughing maniacally in his cell … I mean cubicle.