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)
“The writer operates at a peculiar crossroads where time and place and eternity somehow meet. His problem is to find that location.”
—Flannery O’Connor (1925–1964)