The other day, my brother was playing a game on the Xbox. What is an Xbox you ask? It sounds so familiar. Well, an Xbox is one of those legendary video game consoles that students would go home and play for hours at end during high school, back when we had the luxury of free time. Anyways back to my brother. He was playing a game called The Cave. For those of you who don't know, The Cave is a hilarious problem solving game (think Portal, without cake) quite dark at times, yet satisfyingly challenging. My brother was stuck on a level in which he had to help a monk achieve 'zenness.' And he swallowed his pride and asked me for help.
In this specific level, there is a sign that says, "An ordered mind seeks equilibrium in all things. A sloppy mind just uses the internet. http://monkpuzzle.com/." Just to the right of the sign was an unbalanced weighing scale with a six gallon jug at one end. Further to the right were two more empty jugs - one capable of holding 7 gallons, and the other 4. Beside that was a lake. It immediately reminded me of the 'penny piles' puzzle from class. My first thought was that I somehow needed to get 2 gallons in the bigger jug and then pour a full 4 gallon jug of water in that, thus giving me the equilibrium level of 6. My steps, in great detail are observed below.
'7' Gallon Jug(A) '4' Gallon Jug(B)
0 4 # Fill jug B
4 Empty # Pour B into A
4 4 # Refill B
7 1 # Pour B into A thus leaving one in B
0 1 # Empty jug A
At this point it was just a repetition of this algorithm
1 4 # Pour B into A and refill B
5 4 # Pour B into A and refill B
7 2 # Pour B into A... again
2 4 # Empty A and then pour what's left in B in and then refill B
Aha! I had finally reached the level that I had aspired to. Now it was a simple task. Pour the 4 gallon jar into the 7 gallon jar thus obtaining the required equilibrium level of 6. Level complete. My brother was left in awe yet again.
The next day, as I was on the subway, a thought was nagging me. Yesterday's solution seemed too complex. Surely, there's an easier way to solve the puzzle. After a bit of thinking, I did come up with a 'more efficient' solution.
'7' Gallon Jug(A) '4' Gallon Jug(B)
7 0 # Fill A
3 4 # Pour A into B
3 0 # Empty B
0 3 # Pour A into B
7 3 # Fill A
6 4 # Pour A into B
And voila, we have equilibrium! This solution was much simpler and much more elegant than the one I conjured up on the previous day. However, the nagging feeling persisted. What was I missing? The better part of the day was spent filling, refilling, and pouring (smashing them served no purpose) water into hypothetical jugs. And after some soul searching I came up with an even better solution. The solution was so blindingly obvious and I don't know how I possibly missed it. It was all in the sign: "An ordered mind seeks equilibrium in all things. A sloppy mind just uses the internet. http://monkpuzzle.com/." And sure enough, there was the answer; on that very website. It was quite maddening really. Kudos to the game designers though. At least, (I tried to console myself), it shows that I have 'an ordered mind.' Small consolation that it was.
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