Hollowmere Wildlife Rescue has nine locked yards. Bramble the hedgehog, Dr Hazel Marsh and a buzzard called Juniper are waiting, and the lock that is new in Escape the Wildlife Sanctuary After Dark is The Weigh-In. A weighing tray holds two touching bricks. Its dial says how many times heavier one is than the other, and the weight sits on the heavier brick.
Think in parts
If the dial says ×3, then one brick is 1 part and the other is 3 parts. You do not know the size of a part yet, but you can count how many parts end up in the top brick. Here is a made-up example.
A tray on the bottom row
The top is 26 and the bottom-right brick is 5. A tray holds the bottom-left pair, with its dial on ×3 and the weight on the right brick, so the right one is 3 times the left.
Name the parts
Call the left brick 1 part. The middle brick is 3 parts.
Count parts in the top
The top is left + 2 × middle + right. That is 1 part + 2 × 3 parts + 5, so 7 parts + 5 = 26.
Find the size of a part
26 − 5 = 21, and 21 ÷ 7 = 3. One part is 3, so the bottom row is 3, 9, 5.
Check
3 + 9 = 12 and 9 + 5 = 14. Then 12 + 14 = 26. It balances.
A handy shortcut
When a tray holds a brick and the brick above it, the upper brick is the lower brick plus its neighbour, so the neighbour is (dial − 1) times the lower brick. It is the same idea in a different shape: one part of the dial is the brick itself, and the rest is the neighbour.
More about the book
The Release Board at the end is a seven-row board of weigh-ins. The book also has four pyramid-maze locks, and a real-life note that buzzards are day birds, which is why Juniper is released at sunrise.
How a page looks in the book
A low-resolution page from Escape the Wildlife Sanctuary After Dark, so you can see the layout. Nothing on it is solved.
Books mentioned
Escape the Wildlife Sanctuary After Dark
A puzzle adventure gamebook: open nine locked yards to the pyramid by dawn, with 13 kinds of lock. The Weigh-In is one of them.
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