Monday, April 29, 2013

Pouring water II

Given three bowls: 8, 5 and 3 liters capacity, divide 8 liters in half (4 + 4 liters) with the minimum number of water transfers. Note that the 8-liter bowl is initially filled with 8 liters of water and the other two bowls are empty - that is all water you have.


  1. pour 5 litres from the 8-litre to the 5-litre bowl,
  2. pour 3 litres from the 5-litre to the 3-litre bowl,
  3. pour these 3 litres back to the 8-litre bowl,
  4. pour the remaining 2 litres from the 5-litre to the 3-litre bowl,
  5. pour 5 litres from the 8-litre to the 5-litre bowl,
  6. pour the missing 1 litre from the 5-litre to the 3-litre bowl (there should be 4 litres left in the 5-litre bowl),
  7. pour the 3 litres back from the 3-litre to the 8-litre bowl (and that's it - in 8-litre bowl 4 litres).

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