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Laura has to take 2 different kind of medicines (medicine 1, medicine 2). both look exactly the same (same weight, color, shape, size, etc…; i.e identical).

If she takes more than 1 medicine of the same kind per day, she will die. Furthermore, if she doesn’t take medicine 1 and 2 every day, she will also die.

Laura is on a limited budget, and since the medicines are extremely expensive, she can’t throw any of them away.

One day, she got distracted and by mistake put 2 medicines on the table. Since both medicine types look identical, she’s not sure which medicine is which.

Question: How can she manage to take the medicines without any further dire consequences and yet save the extra medicine?

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  • $\begingroup$ "...and by mistake put 1 medicines on the table". Do you mean she put a single pill on the table? $\endgroup$
    – Mike Earnest
    May 27, 2015 at 5:35
  • $\begingroup$ @MikeEarnest I meant ...and by mistake put 2 medicines on the table Question edited. $\endgroup$
    – Mox Shah
    May 27, 2015 at 5:51
  • $\begingroup$ how about medicine taste ? $\endgroup$
    – user2408578
    May 27, 2015 at 5:55
  • $\begingroup$ Laura is on a limited budget $\endgroup$
    – Mox Shah
    May 27, 2015 at 5:56
  • $\begingroup$ whether she kept two medicines from two different box or same box.....does this recalled by her ? $\endgroup$
    – user2408578
    May 27, 2015 at 6:04

1 Answer 1

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One day, she got distracted and by mistake put 2 medicines on the table. Since both medicine types look identical, she’s not sure which medicine is which.

As I understood she should take 1 of each every day and she has put 2 of each on the table. Then the answer is:

Cut each of the 4 pills in 2 and eat a half of each pill. Eat the other halves tomorrow.
Like that she will consume $2*(1*0.5)$ of medicine 1 and $2*(1*0.5)$ of medicine 2, so exactly 1 of each.

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