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?

Pour half of a full barrel into an empty barrel. That gives you 6 Full Barrels, 9 Half-Full Barrels, and 6 Empty Barrels. 2 Full Barrels per son, 3 Half-Full barrels per son, and 2 Empty Barrels per son. Each son gets an equal amount of Full, Half-Full, and Empty barrels.

Posted by Vincent on 2004-03-09 13:30:09