Liquid problem
 

You have before you two containers, the first containing one liter of black colored liquid, the other containing one liter of clear water.

You also have but one other container, an empty one quarter liter cup.

You dip the cup into the black liquid and transfer precisely one quarter liter of the black liquid into the liter of clear water and stir the mixture. Or you don't stir the mixture (for all intents and purposes here, it makes absolutely no difference whatsoever).

You then decide that you wish to balance the quantity of each container so that they each contain one liter of liquid, and that you wish to have each container contain the same percentage of liquid from the other container.

You must do this in one action, using only one or more of the three containers you have on hand

What do you do?

This is not a "trick" problem. It is purely logical.

You can't you screwed yourself when you did the pre dip thing. You cannot get any amount of clear out without having some black in it now.

Pour one quarter liter of the now non-clear water into the black liquid via the 1/4 liter cup.

+1 transfer 250ml of the mixed liquid back into the 'all black' container. Each container will now have a 80/20 mixture.

agree.

This is a better question than the gnomes one, which was unsolvable as written.

Heh, heh :) Yer absoluteky right - maybe. BUT.....I didn't screw myself at all - doesn't matter :D.

Heh, heh :) Right! :)

[QUOTE=Gogar;4282961]+1 transfer 250ml of the mixed liquid back into the 'all black' container. Each container will now have a 80/20 mixture.[

Ummm.....not exactly. What if the mixture had NOT been stirred? There would then have been the possibility that (however unlikely) the same quantity of the black liquid had been transferred back - or - the the quantity transferred back might have been (again, unlikely) 100% clear liquid, therefore, pinning it down to a particular proportion is irrelevant, no?

Incidentally, I f...ing HATE these useless mental excercises, which is why i push them off on others (I can be a real shi,,head :D)./QUOTE]
..

HA! You said I could stir it if I wanted, so I did. I was very careful.
:p

Dunno what the hell that means - but I like it. :D

In my mind, you know, I stirred it. Very thoroughly.

What was the question, re "the gnomes one"? Reason I'm asking is, I'm currently in the process of putting together a book titled "100 Unsolveable Puzzles" which I'm going to market on the internets and make millions (please keep this under your hat),

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/off-topic-discussions/437995-so-one-hundred-gnomes-going-vacation.html

I won't say a word. ;)

Thanks, bro. I'm a humble dude, but, I'm not two bright - always thought Gnome was a city in Hawayee (or is it Alaska?).

This PPOT form teeches me a lot, but, damn, it can take a lot outta ya! :(

Thank you,

I'm glaad I coold heelp.

Hey, "heelp" has kinda a Sarah Palin twanginess to it, doughnut? :)

You betcha! ;)

Golly! Shucks.....that would be funny! But me an' John, now we're gonna joint maverick the heavens outta that an' by golly. you'll see!

John did what?!! Gave a concession speech?!!!

Golly! Gee, shucks, gawdam stupid ol' fool!

I coulda had it all! :o

You find yourself in a room with a door on either end. One door leads to freedom, the other to sure death.
In front of each the doors is a guard. The guards will not stop you from going out which ever door you choose.
One guard always tells the truth, the other always lies. You allowed to ask one of the guards one question and one question only.
How do you get out safely?

You find yourself at the foot of a flight of stairs.
Next to you are three switches.
One of them turns on an incadescent light bulb in a room at the top of the stairs, but you can't see the light or any light from it unless you climb to the top of the stairs.

You need to determine which of the three switchs turns on the light but you are only allowed to climb the stairs one time.

How do you do it?

Market it to the prisons - they have plenty of time to work out this things plus with the new admin, there will be all sorts of $$$ to spend.

If the guard isn;t goona stop me why is he there? Thats would just piss me off so I would push a guard out one door - if he dies, I go through the other door.

I'd ask one of the guards what door the other guard would say leads to freedom, then I'd go out the other one.

I'd flip on a switch and wait for a couple of minutes.

Then I'd flip it back off and flip on another switch and wait for about another 30 seconds.

Then I'd flip that switch off also and run up the stairs and into the room.

Then I'd touch the bulb to see if it was hot.

If it was hot, that would tell me that it was controlled by the first switch I flipped.

If it was warm, that would tell me that it was controlled by the second switch I flipped.

If it was cold, it's controlled by the switch that I didn't flip.

I was in this predicament when I was in Vegas last year. My biggest fear was that I'd run up the stairs and some character named Tabs would jump into the doorway and push me back down.

Bingo. A positive times a negative is always negative. Involve both guards and you know that whatever answer you get is wrong.

Two for two.
The key was incandescent.
If it was fluorescent it wouldn't get hot enough to use temperature as an idicator.