You have two buckets. One holds exactly five gallons and the other three gallons. How can you measure exactly four gallons of water into the five gallon bucket?
Assume you have an unlimited supply of water and that there are no measurement markings of any kind on the buckets.
The moon. The moon has been around for quite some time, but there’s a “new” moon every month or so. A Blue moon is a rare event. The moon is a body of rock, so it’s never empty, but we do see what we call a full moon some nights. And the moon’s gravity “pulls” on the ocean to create low and high tides, but it doesn’t push anyone around because it’s a friendly fellah.
A similar problem can be found in L.A. Graham’s Ingenious Mathematical Problems and Methods with a range of 1 to 9, but the principle remains the same – the numbers with the smallest difference produce the largest product. You start out with the highest two digits, 7 and 6, then attach 5 and 4, putting the smaller of the two digits with the larger number, giving you 74 and 65. The next two highest digits are 3 and 2, giving you 742 and 653. Finally, you add the 1 to the lower number. Page 80 has the details of that solution.
This mother comes from a family of eight, Supports her children in spite of their weight, Turns around without being called, Has held you since the time you crawled.
“Mother” Earth. The family of eight are the eight planets, all of the world’s population is quite a load, the earth is always spinning (or turning around) and unless you’re an alien, you’ve been on earth your whole life.
My first wears my second; my third might be What my first would acquire if he went to the sea. Put together my one, two, three And the belle of New York is the girl for me.