The three cups problem is a mathematical puzzle that, in its most common form, cannot be solved. Starting with three cups, you place one of the cups upside down and the other two right-side up. The objective is to turn all cups right-side up in no more than six moves. You must turn over exactly two cups at each move.
Famous quotes containing the words cups and/or problem:
“What a devil hast thou to do with the time of the day? Unless hours were cups of sack, and minutes capons, and clocks the
tongues of bawds, and dials the signs of leaping-houses, and the blessed sun himself a fair hot wench in flame-colored
taffeta, I see no reason why thou shouldst be so superfluous
to demand the time of the day.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“A curious thing about the ontological problem is its simplicity. It can be put in three Anglo-Saxon monosyllables: ‘What is there?’ It can be answered, moveover, in a word—‘Everything.’”
—Willard Van Orman Quine (b. 1908)