Give stream of consciousness and then the final answer. You have a flashlight that takes 2 working batteries. You have 8 batteries but only 4 of them work.
What is the fewest number of pairs you need to test to guarantee you can get the flashlight on?
Options:
(A) 5
(B) 8
(C) 7
(D) 6
(E) 4
If you break the batteries into 3 groups: Two groups of 3 and one group of 2. By doing this you guarantee that one of the groups has 2 working batteries. Both of the groups of 3 have 3 possible combinations of 2 batteries and the group of 2 only has 1 combination. So, 3 + 3 + 1 = 7 tries at most to find two working batteries.
The final answer: (C).