Project 365: November 29
The assignment:You have two unmarked containers - one that holds three liters and one that holds eight - and a faucet. Your job is to measure precisely 4 liters.
Katherine enjoyed the hands-on aspect of this problem of the week. She figured it out, but said later that someone else got it a different way.
posted by gomomyourock at
Thursday, November 29, 2007
2 Comments:
Fill the 8. Dump the 8 into the 3. Dump out the 3. Dump the 8 into the 3 again. Dump out the 3. Now the 8 has 2. Now if, and only if the containers have the exact same diameter, fill the 3 so the water is the same height as it is in the 8, and they would then both have 2. Pour the 2 from the the 3 into the 8, then the 8 has 4. This wouldn't work of course if the containers were different diameters. There must be a better solution.
There's no indication that the containers are the same diameter, so you were good until...
Once the 8 has 2, mark the level on the side of the jar with a sharpie and pour the water in the 3liter jar and mark the side with a sharpie (because we always have a sharpie!). Fill the 8 liter jar up to the 2 liter line and add the 2 liters from the 3 liter jar to the 8 liter jar - mark the 4 liter line.
How to do it without a sharpie I just don't know!
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