POW Answer – Disarm A Bomb with Water

This is the answer to last week’s Problem of the Week:

1. Fill the 5.2 gallon bottle.
2. Poor 4 gallons from the 5.2 bottle into to 4 gallon bottle, leaving 1.2 gallons in the 5.2 gallon bottle.
3. Empty the 4 gallon bottle.
4. Poor the remaining 1.2 gallons into the 4 gallon bottle.
5. Fill the 5.2 gallon bottle.
6. Poor 2.8 gallons from the 5.2 gallon bottle into the 4 gallon bottle, leaving 2.4 gallons in the the 5.2 gallon bottle.
7. Put the 5.2 gallon bottle on the scale to diffuse the bomb.

As you may remember, a similar problem to this was in the movie Die Hard 3.