The two buckets, 4 gallons of water question...

[Spork4pedro]

Somewhere Jeremy Irons is reading this thread and laughing maniacally...

[RootedPhoenix]

Fill the 5 gallon bucket to the top from the water hose.

Use the 5 gallon bucket to fill the 3 gallon bucket. This leaves 2 gallons in the 5 gallon bucket and 3 gallons in the 3 gallon bucket.

Dump out exactly half of the water out of the 5 gallon bucket. This leaves 1 gallon of water in that bucket.

Dump all the water from the 3 gallon bucket into the 5 gallon bucket. This leaves you with 4 gallons of water in the 5 gallon bucket, and 1 gallon of water wasted.

Not the right answer, but it was what I thought of.

[Aethian]

Dump out exactly half of the water out of the 5 gallon bucket. This leaves 1 gallon of water in that bucket.

Only problem is on most games where this question is posted you can't dump out odd amounts. All or nothing, unless of course it's the 5 to the 3 but thats because the 3 got all.

[lordlundar]

Yes, that works - but you still waste 6 gallons rather than 5. You've only poured away 3 gallons, true, but you have 3 gallons left over that you're not carrying.

The challenge never says that you must retain any leftover water. Just that you must have an end amount of 4 gallons (or litres or whatever liquid volume measurement)

Only problem is on most games where this question is posted you can't dump out odd amounts. All or nothing, unless of course it's the 5 to the 3 but thats because the 3 got all.

That's because the challenge requires it to be exact and you might not be accurate enough depending on the container. For example a pail is relatively easy to find the halfway point but a narrow spout jug is near impossible.

[dalesys]

That's because the challenge requires it to be exact...

Then where are the corrections for wetting of bucket surfaces, evaporation/condensation, bucket stretch under load, thermal expansion/contraction, air pressure changes (liquids are only incompressable relative to gases), chemical reactions (hydration/solution)...

Not to mention the dog sneaking a drink in the middle of the project.

[KiaKat]

Take both buckets, chuck them back into the shed, and go to the store and get four gallon jugs.

I went looking for the upvote button.

[lordlundar]

Then where are the corrections for wetting of bucket surfaces, evaporation/condensation, bucket stretch under load, thermal expansion/contraction, air pressure changes (liquids are only incompressable relative to gases), chemical reactions (hydration/solution)...

Not to mention the dog sneaking a drink in the middle of the project.

Okay, not that exact (I'm surprised you didn't demand molecular count exact. ). Still needs to be fairly accurate though and narrow spot jugs can't do the "half volume trick" like you can with a container that has the mouth equal to or wider than the base.