A man runs his car out of gas thereby completely emptying his 16 gallon tank. He only has a 3, a 6, and a 11 gallon container (and fortunately a wagon to carry the containers in) in his trunk. He has nothing else in which he can carry gas. He walks a few miles to a gas station, and as luck would have it the gauge on the pump is broken so he can not use that to measure the fuel. He is in a pretty remote area with only one gas station for miles. Gas costs $3.09⁹, and he only has a $50. Using only the containers provided, and only walking once to and from the gas station, how can he get exactly 16 gallons of gas into his car?

(In reply to solution to 'Out of gas' by tom reapy)

A brilliant solution if the containers are translucent or if one could inspect the level of petrol in the containers and be able to mark that level on them.  The assumption may be that the containers are opaque and you can not accurately see the level of petrol in an unfilled container.

Posted by Dej Mar on 2008-04-22 06:12:30