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Icin' the Tea (Posted on 2004-03-09) Difficulty: 1 of 5
This actually happened to me...

  My wife and I were cookin' a Cajun feast for the anniversaire de ma mere. While I handled the vittles, the lovely and talented Mrs. Boy made the drinks.
  She had made the tea strong and wanted to dilute it with 4 cups of water but the guests were at the door and the tea was still hot so she decided to dilute it with ice instead.
  She turned to me and said, "Fat, sweetie, how many ice cubes make a cup of water?"
  I confessed that I did not know as I had not measured the water when I made the cubes. To make matters worse I had not paid attention to how full I had made the trays so we couldn't just refill them and see how much they held.
  Things seemed desperate, as I'd die before I'd serve my Gumbo without sweet tea, but Mrs. Boy is no fool and she found a way. The tea was just right (though the cheese grits were a little burnt).

How did Mrs. B manage to ascertain the proper number of ice cubes to produce the 4 cups of water needed to dilute the tea? All she had to use was the ice cubes themselves, an ungraduated glass pitcher of unknown volume and the 4 cup graduated Pyrex measuring cup full of (too strong) tea.

  Submitted by FatBoy    
Rating: 3.3333 (6 votes)
Solution: (Hide)
My lovely bride poured enough of the tea into the pitcher to lower the level in the pyrex cup to the 2 cups line. She then added enough cubes to raise the level to four cups.

Mrs. B. knew that ice does not change mass when it goes from solid to liquid, so the level of the ice/tea combination was the same as the ice/water dilution would be once the ice melted (in spite of the bits of the cubes that stuck out of the top of the water.) She therefore knew that she had added enough cubes to account for two cups of water.

Next she poured the ice/tea combo into the pitcher and then she refilled the measuring up to the 2 cup line from the pitcher without allowing any of the ice cubes to fall back into the cup. She then repeated the process and perfectly diluted the tea.

and to think, I married her for her looks...

Comments: ( You must be logged in to post comments.)
  Subject Author Date
Solutionre(2): 3/4 of the way thereMindrod2006-02-26 13:09:42
Solutionre: 3/4 of the way theregoFish2006-02-25 17:52:58
Solution3/4 of the way thereMindrod2006-02-23 00:10:32
Solutionanswerjessica2005-11-23 09:54:10
The previous answers are correct...Kenny M2005-11-19 22:11:50
Solutiondilution solutionSam Haylor2004-07-20 19:29:17
No SubjectJustin2004-07-10 17:38:09
Here goesJustin2004-07-10 17:35:41
No SubjectMichael Aquino2004-04-27 21:43:41
re(2): Why did almost everybody overcomplicate this ?Alec Lanter2004-04-27 17:01:31
solution!lindsey stevens2004-04-26 21:03:10
re: Why did almost everybody overcomplicate this ?Ian2004-04-20 22:57:23
solution?Lisa2004-04-20 17:46:32
Why did almost everybody overcomplicate this ?Penny2004-03-31 21:14:47
SolutionNo Subjecthunter2004-03-30 09:02:17
water: a polar moleculetnewt2004-03-25 16:19:09
re: Cups of water or cups of ice?Penny2004-03-23 04:11:06
Some ThoughtsCups of water or cups of ice?pppy2004-03-22 23:23:28
SolutionProposed solutionGalendir2004-03-21 23:46:32
Icin the teaScott Proper2004-03-18 15:11:14
My solutionDean2004-03-18 01:05:16
re: a practical solutionCory Taylor2004-03-17 14:35:56
Solutiona practical solutionLee2004-03-17 12:45:06
My solutionmiles purdy2004-03-17 10:00:49
re: solutionPenny2004-03-17 06:45:30
solutionK2004-03-16 10:44:26
solution?cfnew2004-03-13 00:30:16
solution?cfnew2004-03-13 00:29:29
solutionSteven2004-03-12 23:57:03
SolutionThis must be the solutionJake2004-03-12 05:06:25
re(2): solutionJils2004-03-10 16:22:20
re: solutionTristan2004-03-09 22:30:28
All the solutions so far...Penny2004-03-09 13:00:27
re: solutionPenny2004-03-09 11:58:50
SolutionsolutionJoshua Quintana2004-03-09 11:27:48
re: Since Mrs. Boy is no fool....Jils2004-03-09 10:20:29
SolutionSince Mrs. Boy is no fool....Penny2004-03-09 08:42:44
Some ThoughtsLong StrawsJils2004-03-09 08:31:26
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