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"Victory goes to the player who makes the next-to-last mistake - Chessmaster Savielly Grigorievitch Tartakower (1887-1956)"

Wednesday, May 03, 2006

Brain Teasers...


1) What are the missing symbols in the following calculation? 5 ? 9 ? 4 ? 8 = 19.25

2) You've got a 4 litre jug and a 9 litre jug. You've got a pool of water. What is the fewest number of steps it takes to come up with exactly 6 litres of water?
You cannot pour some water into the 9 litre jug and then guess. Nor can you fill each jug up half way and guess. You have to be exact. A step is defined as putting water into a jug (but not emptying it). For instance, filling the 4 litre jug and then pouring it into the 9 litre jug is 2 steps.

5 comments:

  1. Anonymous9:01 am

    5 * 9 / 4 + 8 = 19.25

    ReplyDelete
  2. Good lad, Luca. I see all that packing hasn't deadened your maths skills :-)

    Good luck for Friday.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous12:31 pm

    Jugs of water? Pah. Jugs of beer and I can do this I can.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anonymous12:48 pm

    6 steps
    fill the 9 litre jug
    pour into the 4 litre jug and empty
    repeat and empty
    pour the remaing one litre into the four litre jug
    fill the 9 litre
    pour into the four litre until its full and you've got 6 litres

    yeah!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Well done, Richard. Spot on.

    ReplyDelete

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