Monday puzzle: the 6 glasses problem

Before I get to the puzzle, I have a small note about posts. Thanksgiving is a special time of year, and accordingly I am doing something special for this blog. This week Mind Your Decisions will run puzzles and fun problems all week long. I hope you enjoy them–regular posts will begin next week.

Here’s a fun challenge (and an easy one) that is great to ask people at a party.

The setup is the following: you take 6 glasses and line them up in a row. Then, fill the first 3 with water as in the following picture:

The problem is this: you need to change the order of the glasses. What we want is the first glass to be filled, the second to be empty, the third to be filled, the fourth to be empty, the fifth to be filled, and sixth to be empty.

However, there is a restriction: you are only allowed to move one of the glasses.

Can you figure out how to do it?

I have posted a solution in the comments section.



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  • http://mathsetc.wordpress.com Gareth

    pour the second glass into the fifth glass?

  • http://www.mindyourdecisions.com/blog/ Presh Talwalkar

    Gareth was quick to answer and well done. Yes, it’s a creative answer, but I still enjoyed it: simply pour the second glass into the fifth.

    If you want to spice things up, play the game with beer/wine and announce that the person that figures out the answer first wins all the drinks.

  • Kapil Dalwani

    Commenting so that I can subscribe to the solutions.

    Btw, shouldn’t there be a restriction on how many moves does one makes for an effecient solution. The answer above is great!

  • Rex

    You said, “you need to change the order of the glasses”; that rules out your solution, which does not change the order of the glasses; it just redistributes their contents.

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