The Adventures of Vladimir Smirnoff—Vodka in the Bathtub

Vladimir Smirnoff has a tank of pure ethanol. He has two buckets, a blue bucket of capacity 3 litres and a red bucket of capacity 5 litres. How can he obtain a litre of excellent Smirnoff vodka (40 percent ethanol by volume) by playing with his buckets in the bathtub?

Sketch the Thirteenth: In which our hero prepares homemade vodka, using a traditional recipe.

Solution:

1) Fill the blue bucket with ethanol.
2) Pour the ethanol in the blue bucket into the red bucket. The blue bucket is now empty, and there is 3L of ethanol in the red bucket.
3) Fill the blue bucket with ethanol.
4) Fill the red bucket with ethanol from the blue bucket. There is 1L of ethanol left in the blue bucket.
5) Empty the red bucket.
6) Pour the ethanol in the blue bucket into the red bucket. The blue bucket is now empty, and there is 1L of ethanol in the red bucket.
7) Fill the blue bucket with water.
8) Pour the water in the blue bucket into the red bucket. The blue bucket is now empty, and there is now 3L of water and 1L of ethanol in the red bucket.
9) Fill the blue bucket with ethanol.
10) Fill the red bucket with ethanol from the blue bucket. There is now 3L of water and 2L of ethanol in the red bucket, while there is 2L of ethanol left in the blue bucket.
11) Fill the blue bucket with vodka from the red bucket. There is 4L of vodka left in the red bucket.
12) Empty the blue bucket.
13) Fill the blue bucket with vodka from the red bucket. There is 1L of vodka left in the red bucket.

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