The director of a Zoo has bought eight elephants numbered by $1, 2, \ldots , 8$. He has forgotten their masses but he remembers that each elephant starting with the third one has the mass equal to the sum of the masses of two preceding ones. Suddenly the director hears a rumor that one of the elephants has lost his mass. How can the director perform two weightings on balancing scales without weights to either find this elephant or make sure that this was just a rumor? (It is known that no elephant gained mass and no more than one elephant lost mass.) Alexandr Gribalko
Problem
Source: 42nd International Tournament of Towns, Junior O-Level P5, Fall 2020
Tags: combinatorics, Tournament of Towns