In article , "HDRDTD" wrote:
This one triped up every engineer here that has taken the test so far.

I was thinking along the same lines at first, noting that if you measure
from the center of each box to the fulcrum, the the distance ratio appears
to be 5:1

Not "appears to be". Is.

but that results in an answer of 60kg, and that ain't an option
given.

That's because the testmaker screwed up, and forgot that the weights will
behave as point masses located at their respective centers of gravity. 60kg is
the correct answer.

However....

If you look at it as each box sites on two segments, and count that way, or
in other words if each segment was shown as the width of a box, the the
ratio appears as 3:1 which provides the correct solution.

No, not the correct solution -- the solution that matches their answer.

--
Regards,
Doug Miller (alphageek at milmac dot com)

It's time to throw all their damned tea in the harbor again.