48 replies to this topic

[rookie1ja]

Pouring water I. - Back to the Water and Weighing Puzzles
If you had a 5-liter bowl and a 3-liter bowl, and an unlimited access to water, how would you measure exactly 4 liters?

This old topic is locked since it was answered many times. You can check solution in the Spoiler below.
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Spoiler for Solution

Pouring Water I. - solution
Fill the 5-litre bowl and overspill water to the 3-litre bowl, which you empty afterwards. From the 5-litre bowl overspill the 2 remaining litres to the 3-litre bowl. Refill the 5-litre bowl and fill in the 3-litre bowl (with 1 litre), so there stay the 4 required litres in the 5-litre bowl.

[loserfreak]

Perhaps a few more steps--more wasting of water too. But it works.
1) Fill the 3. Pour it into the 5.
2) Fill the 3 again. Pour 2 into the 5. 1 remains in the 3.
3) Empty the 5. Pour the 1 from the 3 into the 5.
4) Fill the 3 again. Pour it into the 5 that already has 1 in it. Voila!

[rookie1ja]

That's correct. BTW, this one was mentioned in a movie called Die Hard: With a Vengeance (1995) with Bruce Willis - measuring 4 gallons of water at a fountain. For more check http://www.imdb.com/...t0112864/trivia - 3rd paragraph from the bottom where it begins as follows: "There are two solutions to the water jug riddle ...".

[Veracity]

Perhaps a few more steps--more wasting of water too. But it works.
1) Fill the 3. Pour it into the 5.
2) Fill the 3 again. Pour 2 into the 5. 1 remains in the 3.
3) Empty the 5. Pour the 1 from the 3 into the 5.
4) Fill the 3 again. Pour it into the 5 that already has 1 in it. Voila!

Doesn't work that way. If you were able to pour out only 2 units of water from the 3 unit bowl (as stated in line 2) then why not just do that twice, and you would have 4 parts. Point of the riddle is that you are not able to Eyeball 2 parts (meaning the bowls must not be marked or there would be no point for the riddle) You need to figure out a way to accurately measure 4 parts Without Guesswork...

Best I can figure is like this.

Fill the 5 unit bowl. Fill the 3 unit bowl from the 5 unit bowl leaving 2 units in the 5 unit bowl. Mark the 2 unit water line in the 5 unit bowl. Empty the 3 unit bowl. Transfer the pre measured 2 units from bowl 5 into bowl 3. Now bowl 3 has 2 units of water in it for sure! Refill the 5 unit bowl to your mark (2 units) and the dump the other 2 units in the other bowl into that one. B. I. N. G. O and BINGO was her NAME-----O

But that's assuming that you were able to mark the bowls, and I do not think that that is allowed in the rules. So it's still not really valid..lol

[Veracity]

Pouring water I. - Back to the Water and Weighing Puzzles
If you had a 5-litre and a 3-litre bowl and access to water. How would you measure exactly 4 litres?


Pouring Water I. - solution
Fill the 5-litre bowl and overspill water to the 3-litre bowl, which you empty afterwards. From the 5-litre bowl overspill the 2 remaining litres to the 3-litre bowl. Refill the 5-litre bowl and fill in the 3-litre bowl (with 1 litre), so there stay the 4 required litres in the 5-litre bowl.

Hey Rookie. I'll start by saying that I LOVE this website and the time you put into it. It is a Serious Accomplishment to get your site featured on GOOGLE's homepage. Congrads... Now with that out of the way...
I have read through LOTS of your puzzles and such, and all have well written explainations, EXCEPT THIS ONE. I read it 30 times, AND I CAN NOT MAKE SENCE OF IT! When you say overspill water into the 3 litre bowl and "from the 5 litre bowl overspill the remaining 2 litres,,, WAIT........ OOOOOOHHHHHHHH I GET ITTTT!!!! LMAO

Very Cool!

[warmastersor]

@Veracity

The point is: You have already got 3 litres in the 5 litre bowl, so you dont have to guess what 2 litres will be. 2 Litres will exactly fill the 5 liter bowl, because 2+3=5. So, maybe now it will make sense.. And it IS valid.

[Veracity]

@Veracity

The point is: You have already got 3 litres in the 5 litre bowl, so you dont have to guess what 2 litres will be. 2 Litres will exactly fill the 5 liter bowl, because 2+3=5. So, maybe now it will make sense.. And it IS valid.

Yeah, I know, That's why I said "Oh, I Got It" Just took me a minute. I was unclear on his use of the term "Overspill"

I have never heard the word in fact. Had he said POUR the water from the 5 liter bowl, it would have made sense to me. It just took me a minute, that's all. When I heard overspill it had me thinking he was putting the 3 liter bowl in the 5 liter bowl and overfilling it until water OVERSPILLED into the 5 liter bowl. lol

No Doubt his answers are valid, if they were not he would not be all over the front page of Google... But thanks for your 2 cents worth..

[LQEngineer]

You can't mark the water line since this is not exact. Do the following:

1. Fill 5 liter and pour into 3 liter container leaving 2 liters (in the 5 liter container)
2. Empty 3 liter container (no rules about emptying out water) and pour the 2 liters from the 5 into the 3 liter container leaving 1 liter of head space.
3 Fill 5 liter and pour as much as the remainder of the 3 liter will handle (1 liter from step 2) leaving 4 liters exactly in the 5 liter contain. Drink the rest of the water in the 3 liter container

[Krissy]

I have the puzzles come up on my google home page every time I refresh and am loving doing them.

I know this isn't the exact way to do this puzzle and that it is actually kinda just a cheap way. (also my maths could be off, never was good at maths) However couldn't you just half fill both containers...? I mean half of 5 is 2.5 and half of three is 1.5 and 2.5 + 1.5 = 4?

I mean.. yeah its kinda a cheat way. But its what I originally thought of. It also wouldn't exactly be accurate because you wouldn't be able to exactly find half way in each bowl.. but still... It'd kinda work

[tommy]

Pour water in half of each bowl. So you have 1.5 litre ( 3Litre bowl) 2.5 ( 5 litre bowl)
Then pour the 1.5 litre on the 2.5 litre, thus you have 4 litre.