There is a water tank. You have a five pint container and a three pint container. With no wastage, you must draw 4 pints of water from the tank. You can't estimate. You do not know how much is in the water tank. How can you do this?

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<font size="0"> Fill the five pint container. Fill the three pint container from the five pint container, leaving two pints in the five pint container. Empty the three pint container into the water tank. Pour the two pints from the five pint container into the three pint container. Fill the five pint container, and then top up the three pint container (which now contains two pints) from the five pint container, leaving four pints in the five pint container. </font>

oh, so I assume these containers have markings for the measurements, then? Kinda takes the difficulty out of it. [img]tongue.gif[/img]

No. You get two pints in the five pint container by removing three pints using the three pint container.

but the teaser specifically says there can be no wastage. the five pint container has 1 pint of watage, therefore the answer is contradictory to the problem. maybe ill be a lawyer...

Edit
Oh wait a minute, I see what you mean. I meant no wastage of water, not wastage of space.

[ 10-20-2004, 09:19 PM: Message edited by: Dirty Meg ]

ohh, ok
i didn't realise you could pour the water back into the tank, if you can it's less impossible.