Puzzle: Tale of the Eccentric Vintner
The following is my adaptation of a puzzle offered by an old friend. The original is a little too bawdy so I’ve recast it…
This one eccentric winemaker believes the secret to great drink is to have the grapes squashed by the feet of dancing maidens. He has arranged for one on Saturday and another for Sunday. Given modern health regulations the dancers are required to wear booties, but the vintner is unwilling to spend much money on such disposable footwear. Given that each dancer will be required to squash both chardonnay and cabernet grapes which cannot contaminate each other, and that the dancers are unwilling to wear booties worn by one another – What’s the least number of pairs of booties that the vintner needs to buy? And what procedure is necessary to ensure that the dancers’ feet won’t have to share booties and that the two kinds of grapes do not contact each other.
Hint: 1) it’s fewer than you think, 2) no it’s not 3 pairs, and 3) one can wear booties over other booties.
posted by Matt Campbell at 9:17 AM
2 Comments:
Ms. Saturday puts on a pair of booties and hops into the chardonnay tub. When she's done, she puts a second pair of booties on over the first pair and jumps into the cabernet grapes. The next day Ms. Sunday puts on the outer booties (that have some chardonnay grime on the inside and some cabernet on the outside. Thus she Jumps into the cabernet tub first. When she's done there, tosses on the other set of booties (Saturday gunk and chardonnay gunk) with the chardonnay side out. And hopes into the chardonnay tub. All done, no shared foot grime and no mixed grapes. Although Ms. Sunday is going to have to wash the chardonnay gunk off her feet.
Almost, "anonymous" (posted on May 23). But it should be done (and can be) to prevent the last line of your post from occuring. That is, the real solution does not require that any grapes and feet come into contact.
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