Health Care Professionals Group

pharmacists?

a pharmacist uses 5 separate weights: 1 g 2g 4g 8g and 16g If the pharmacist can combine these weights to create new weights how many different weights are possible??

Public Comments

1. All weights between 1 g and 31 g are possible. (You could either make a list of these, or you could say that a combination of weights is equivalent to a number with up to 5 digits in the binary system. For example, if you want to have 19 g, you write 19 in the binary system: 10011. Reading from the right to the left, you take 1g, you take 2 g, you don't take 4 g, you don't take 8 g, you take 16 g.)
2. Hi, Any integer total from 1g to 31 grams can be made.
3. Total number of ways = 5C1 + 5C2 + 5C3 + 5C4 + 5C5= 5+20+20+5+1 =51 ways In words, this means that If you choose 1 weight, there are 5 ways. If you choose 2 weight, there are 20 ways. If you choose 3 weights, there are 20 ways. If you choose 4 weights, there are 5 ways. If you choose 5 weights, there is 1 way.