ABSTRACT
I suspect we have all done some variation of the water jug problem several times during our mathematical development. You know the problem. You have three unmarked jugs that hold various quantities of water and you need to accurately measure a different amount that can be obtained by some combination of the jugs you have. It is thought that Siméon Denis Poisson, a 19th-century mathematician, had his interest in mathematics sparked when he encountered the problem. “Two friends who have an eight-quart jug of water wish to share it evenly. They also have two empty jars, one holding five quarts, the other three. How can they each measure exactly 4 quarts of water?”
