Identical Pills Puzzle

April 12, 2023

Solve the Identical Pills Puzzle

Step-Wise Solution for the Identical Pills Puzzle.

Samantha has a medical condition for which she needs to take two pills each day. She needs to take exactly one of pill A and one of pill B together. The pills are very expensive and very difficult to buy. Therefore the doctor has advised her not to waste any of them. One day she opens the bottle of pill A and taps one out, however when she opens the bottle of pill B, she accidentally taps out 2 pills. The pills are identical in appearance so she cannot guess which one is what. She cannot take more than one of either pill as it will have side effects. How will she satisfy her regimen and take one of each pill without wasting any of them?

identical pills puzzle

Solution

To satisfy her regimen, Samantha can do the following:-

Step 1:-

  • Cut all the pills in half.
  • Now she has 4 parts of pill B and 2 parts of pill A

Step 2:-

  • Make a pile with three halves each from one pill.
  • Therefore, we have in the pile a full pill B(two halves of pill B) and half of pill A.
the man with a medical condition

Step 3:-

  • Take another pill A and cut it in half.
  • Put each halves in either of the piles.
  • Now each pile has a full pill A and a full pill B.
  • Samantha can take one pile now and the other pile whenever she needs to take the next dose.
step-wise solution of identical pills puzzle

Prime Course Trailer

Related Banners

Get PrepInsta Prime & get Access to all 200+ courses offered by PrepInsta in One Subscription

Get Prime
Branding

Get over 200+ course One Subscription

Courses like AI/ML, Cloud Computing, Ethical Hacking, C, C++, Java, Python, DSA (All Languages), Competitive Coding (All Languages), TCS, Infosys, Wipro, Amazon, DBMS, SQL and others

Get Prime
Course List
Course List

Checkout list of all the video courses in PrepInsta Prime Subscription

Checkout list of all the video courses in PrepInsta Prime Subscription

Checkout
Checkout