A man is the owner of a winery who recently passed away. In his will, he left 21 barrels (seven of which are filled with wine, seven of which are half full, and seven of which are empty) to his three sons. However, the wine and barrels must be split so that each son has the same number of full barrels, the same number of half-full barrels, and the same number of empty barrels.( Note that there are no measuring devices handy).
How can the barrels and wine be evenly divided?
Let us designate the with wine barrel as B(i), where:
FULL BARRELS=> B(1) to B(7)
HALF-FULL BARRELS => B(8) to B(14)
EMPTY BARRELS=> B(15) to B(21)
We pour half-full barrels B(13) and B(14) into half-full-barrels B(8) and B(9) respectively.
After this operation we have:
B(1) to B(9) -> FULL
B(10) to B(12) -> HALF-FULL
B(13) to B(21) -> EMPTY
Accordingly, there are now 9 full barrels, 3 half-full barrels and 9 empty barrels.
FIRST SON GETS:
3 full barrels B(1) to B(3)
1 half-full barrel B(10), and:
3 empty barrels B(13) to B(15)
SECOND SON GETS:
3 full barrels B(4) to B(6)
1 half-full barrel B(11)
3 empty barrels B(16) to B(18)
THIRD SON GETS:
3 full barrels B(7) to B(9)
1 half-full barrel B(12)
3 empty barrels B(19) to B(21)
Edited on December 27, 2021, 2:09 am
Puzzle Solution
