A mobile is a type of kinetic sculpture constructed to take advantage of the principle of equilibrium. It consists of a number of rods, from which weighted objects or further rods hang. The objects hanging from the rods balance each other, so that the rods remain more or less horizontal. Each rod hangs from only one string, which gives it freedom to rotate about the string.
We consider mobiles where each rod is attached to its string exactly in the middle, as in the figure underneath. You are given such a configuration, but the weights on the ends are chosen incorrectly, so that the mobile is not in equilibrium. Since that's not aesthetically pleasing, you decide to change some of the weights.
What is the minimum number of weights that you must change in order to bring the mobile to equilibrium? You may substitute any weight by any (possibly non-integer) weight. For the mobile shown in the figure, equilibrium can be reached by changing the middle weight from 7 to 3, so only 1 weight needs to changed.