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Six Cups


unreality
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i saw this somewhere else and decided to draw it and stuff:

sixcups.jpg

Here are six cups. Three of them are empty, three have wine in them. Your goal is to make the line of cups alternate (wine-empty-wine-empty or empty-wine-empty-etc). You can only touch one cup and that is the cup you move. You may not move any other cups with or without your hand except if you are pushing the cup you chose to move between two other cups. How do you do it?

Pour cup 4 into empty cup 1!

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brhan look at the bolded part in my OP:

i saw this somewhere else and decided to draw it and stuff:

sixcups.jpg

Here are six cups. Three of them are empty, three have wine in them. Your goal is to make the line of cups alternate (wine-empty-wine-empty or empty-wine-empty-etc). You can only touch one cup and that is the cup you move. You may not move any other cups with or without your hand except if you are pushing the cup you chose to move between two other cups. How do you do it?

Pour cup 4 into empty cup 1!

your solution doesn't work ;D

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Correct me if I'm wrong, but wouldn't you also be able to move cup number 4 and place it between cups 1 and 2? The riddle states "You may not move any other cups with or without your hand except if you are pushing the cup you chose to move between two other cups".

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Correct me if I'm wrong, but wouldn't you also be able to move cup number 4 and place it between cups 1 and 2? The riddle states "You may not move any other cups with or without your hand except if you are pushing the cup you chose to move between two other cups".

that does make sense if you think about it for a little cause you'll push it with the cup not your hand nice thinking Kyoti :)B)):D

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i saw this somewhere else and decided to draw it and stuff:

sixcups.jpg

Here are six cups. Three of them are empty, three have wine in them. Your goal is to make the line of cups alternate (wine-empty-wine-empty or empty-wine-empty-etc). You can only touch one cup and that is the cup you move. You may not move any other cups with or without your hand except if you are pushing the cup you chose to move between two other cups. How do you do it?

Pour cup 4 into empty cup 1!

I'll take the 4th glass and pour the wine into the first.This way we'll have-wine-empty-wine-empty-wine-empty.

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Correct me if I'm wrong, but wouldn't you also be able to move cup number 4 and place it between cups 1 and 2? The riddle states "You may not move any other cups with or without your hand except if you are pushing the cup you chose to move between two other cups".

Uh, no, that doesn't work. You'd still have two wine cups in a row (original positions 3 and 5). I'm pretty sure that the other solution posted is the only one that works.

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Uh, no, that doesn't work. You'd still have two wine cups in a row (original positions 3 and 5). I'm pretty sure that the other solution posted is the only one that works.

Dang, you're right. I had forgotten that there were 3 filled cups in a row, and by moving one there were still two in a row. Since my solution didn't work, I agree that the original solution is probably the only valid solution.

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Pour the wine from the fourth cup into the first cup then replace cup four in its original position. Am I missing something simple that makes this problem more complex?

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I must be missing something ...

If this is the starting lineup: O O O * * *

... and I pour cup 4 into cup 1, I get this: * O O O * *

which is NOT the desired outcome. So the starting lineup is something else? Defined where in the problem statement?

Help me see your logic please!

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I must be missing something ...

If this is the starting lineup: O O O * * *

... and I pour cup 4 into cup 1, I get this: * O O O * *

which is NOT the desired outcome. So the starting lineup is something else? Defined where in the problem statement?

Help me see your logic please!

Never mind! With my work computer (running Win XP Pro) and firefox I could not see the original graphic with the cups in the

original arrangement, and assumed it was as above. It makes the problem MUCH more difficult this way!

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A second solution is to use cup #1 to push cup #4 around to the now empty #1 spot and return your cup to the newly vacated #4 spot, satisfying the requirements of (a) touching only one cup and (b) moving no other cups except if moving yours between two others (#3 and #5).

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