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:
“When cups went round at close of day
Is not that how good stories run?
The gods were sitting at the board
In their great house at Slievenamon.
They sang a drowsy song, or snored,
For all were full of wine and meat.”
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)
“What had really caused the women’s movement was the additional years of human life. At the turn of the century women’s life expectancy was forty-six; now it was nearly eighty. Our groping sense that we couldn’t live all those years in terms of motherhood alone was “the problem that had no name.” Realizing that it was not some freakish personal fault but our common problem as women had enabled us to take the first steps to change our lives.”
—Betty Friedan (20th century)