Four friends are gathered at a pub. They have in front of them two 8-pint trankards full of beer, and an empty 3-pint mug.

Since they are still sober, they quickly calculate that they have 16 pints for the four of them, which comes out to an even 4 pints per person.

Can they divide the beer equally with the containers they have available?

(In reply to Full shortest solution by Jim Lyon)

I think that's exactly the same number of steps as my solution (25 states, including initial configuration) - first 11 steps are identical too - ooooo:

8 8 0 0 0 0 0 Initial configuration
5 8 3 0 0 0 0 Fill mug from T1
5 8 0 3 0 0 0 Person 1 drinks mug
2 8 3 3 0 0 0 Fill mug from T1
0 8 3 3 2 0 0 Person 2 drinks T1
3 8 0 3 2 0 0 Empty mug into T1
3 5 3 3 2 0 0 Fill mug from T2
6 5 0 3 2 0 0 Empty mug into T1
6 2 3 3 2 0 0 Fill mug from T2
8 2 1 3 2 0 0 Fill T1 from mug
8 2 0 4 2 0 0 Person 1 drinks mug
8 0 2 4 2 0 0 Empty T2 into mug
7 0 3 4 2 0 0 Fill mug from T1
7 3 0 4 2 0 0 Empty mug into T2
4 3 3 4 2 0 0 Fill mug from T1
4 6 0 4 2 0 0 Empty mug into T2
1 6 3 4 2 0 0 Fill mug from T1
0 6 3 4 2 1 0 Person 3 drinks T1
0 8 1 4 2 1 0 Fill T2 from mug
0 8 0 4 2 1 1 Person 4 drinks mug
0 5 3 4 2 1 1 Fill mug from T2
0 5 0 4 2 4 1 Person 3 drinks mug
0 2 3 4 2 4 1 Fill mug from T2
0 2 0 4 2 4 4 Person 4 drinks mug
0 0 0 4 4 4 4 Person 2 drinks T2

Anyone want to buy me some 8-pint tankards so I can, errrr, "experiment with other methods"...? ;-)

Posted by Nick Reed on 2002-06-13 09:03:00