On Anomaly Identification and the Counterfeit Coin Problem

We address a well-known problem in combinatorics involving the identification of counterfeit coins with a systematic approach. The methodology can be applied to cases where the total number of coins is exceedingly large such that brute force or enumerative comparisons become impractical. Based on the principle behind this approach, the minimum effort necessary for identification of the counterfeit coin can be determined and expressed as a simple relation. We further suggest a possible application of this methodology to error detection in quantum information processing.