Puzzles - Measuring Cups
9/27/2010
You have a recipe that calls for 1 cup of water. You seem to have misplaced your measuring cups and only have two glasses available. One of the glasses holds 3 cups of water and the other holds 5 cups of water. How can you use these two glasses to measure out 1 cup of water?
Solution
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Fill the 3 cup glass and pour it into the 5 cup glass. Now fill the 3 cup glass again and fill the 5 cup glass until it is full. What remains in the 3 cup glass is one cup of water. This works because you filled up the 3 cup glass twice or 3 x 2 cups of water = 6 cups of water. Since you poured out 5 cups into the 5 cup glass, you are left with 1 cup remaining: 6 cups - 5 cups = 1 cup.