How to play Weigh
Five parcels weigh five known amounts, in some hidden order. Load the pans of a balance and weigh; it tips left, tips right or holds level. Work out which parcel is which in as few weighings as par. One puzzle a day, on the second shelf, outside the daily line-up.
Play today's Weigh · Watch the gameplay demo
The rules
- The five weights are shown above the balance. Parcels A to E weigh those five amounts, one each, in an order you do not know — one of 120 arrangements.
- Tap a parcel to move it: into the left pan, then the right pan, then back to the tray. Any number of parcels on each pan; both pans need something before you can weigh.
- Weigh answers one of three ways: the left pan is heavier, the right is, or they are level. The count in the dock shows how many of the 120 arrangements still fit everything you have seen, and the ledger under the answer row keeps every weighing. The same loading again — even with the pans swapped — is refused: the ledger flashes the line that already answered it, and nothing is charged.
- Drag a weight onto a parcel — or tap the weight, then the parcel — to say what it weighs. A weight sits on one parcel at a time, so placing it elsewhere moves it; tap the tag on a parcel to take its weight off. With all five placed, Check. A wrong check costs two weighings, and rules that arrangement out; the same guess again is refused, like a repeated weighing. Three wrong checks end the puzzle, unsolved, and the answer is shown.
- Par is the fewest weighings that can always tell the parcels apart on that set of weights, in the worst case. At par or under scores 100; each weighing over costs 15, down to a floor of 10.
- One puzzle a day. Your progress is saved weighing by weighing, so a refresh is not a second attempt; the archive holds every past day.
Strategy
- Ask three-way questions. Two parcels alone can only tip one way or the other — a two-way answer, which halves the field at best. A pan that can come out level splits it three ways.
- Sums that collide are your friend. If two of the weights add to a third — 2 + 3 = 5, say — then two parcels against one can balance, and a level pan tells you a lot. Look for those sums before the first weighing.
- Watch the count. After each weighing the dock says how many arrangements still fit. A weighing that could leave nearly all of them standing is a weak one; one whose three outcomes each leave about a third is ideal.
- Reuse what you know. Once you know A outweighs B, put them together against something — you learn about the sum without spending a weighing on the pair again.
- Check only when one arrangement fits, or when you are sure. A wrong check is two weighings, which is usually more than one more weighing would have cost — and you get three.
Scoring
At par or under, 100. Each weighing over par costs 15, and a wrong check counts as two weighings; the floor is 10. Par 6 in six weighings is 100; in eight, or in six with a wrong check, 70. A third wrong check ends the puzzle unsolved, at 0. Weigh sits outside the daily line-up, so its score never moves your day’s total.
Full details on how scoring works.