Please help solve!

Question

There are two unmarked buckets by a stream.
There are two unmarked buckets by a stream. the buckets hold 19 and 8 gallons of water respectively. How can 14 gallons of water be obtained, to take home?

 

Complete the sequence below, the numbers represent the number of gallons in each bucket in each successive step.

 

Big: 19, 11, 3, 3, 0, 19, 14, 14

Small: 0, _, _, _, _, _, _, 0

Answer 1

HI Aaron,

 

This is basically a puzzle.  

 

Big     : 19, 11, 11, 3, 3, 0, 19, 14, 14

 

Small :   0,  8,   0,  8, 0, 3,  3,   8,   0

 

The steps describing what happened,

 

1) Fill up the large bucket with 19 gals

2) Pour 8 gals into small bucket filling it, leaving 11 gals in large bucket

3) Empty small bucket

4) Pour 8 gals into small bucket filling it, leaving 3 gals in large bucket
5) Empty small bucket

6) Pour 3 gals remaining in large bucket into the small bucket

7) Fill large bucket again with 19 gals

8) Pour 5 gals from large bucket to small bucket thus filling small bucket, and leaving 14 gals in large bucket

9) Dump small bucket and head home.

 

Now that I have shown you the trick, please answer the following question for me.

 

How would you use this same process to get exactly one gallon in your bucket?

 

I hope this helps.

Sincerely,

Ralph K.