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        riddles >> easy >> Doin' the Dishes
        
(Message started by: rloginunix on May 7^th, 2015, 7:48pm)

Title: Doin' the Dishes
Post by rloginunix on May 7^th, 2015, 7:48pm

Doin' the Dishes

I know that Grimbal would say "No, I am not" but let us imagine that you are doing the dishes which are stacked in your kitchen sink the Russian Matryoshka (nesting doll) style - a small salad bowl inside the larger one, which is inside the larger one, which is inside the larger one, etc. There are N such dishes where N is a reasonable positive integer.

1). You must wash them in the stacked order - you can only take one bowl off the top of the stack at any one time, starting from the smallest one.

2). After the dish is washed you can put it anywhere on the table next to your sink but once you let it go you cannot touch it again. You then shall proceed on to the next dish until all are done.

Following these rules is it possible to have the clean dishes arranged in the Matryoshka smaller-inside-the-larger style formation anyway?

If you think that it is possible then how can this be done?

Title: Re: Doin' the Dishes
Post by gotit on May 8^th, 2015, 1:41am

After cleaning a dish, [hide]keep it upside down on top of the previously washed dish, which is also turned upside down....[/hide]

Title: Re: Doin' the Dishes
Post by rloginunix on May 8^th, 2015, 7:40am

An answer that stacks up well against the intended one - you are correct.

Title: Re: Doin' the Dishes
Post by Grimbal on May 14^th, 2015, 7:30am

on 05/07/15 at 19:48:24, rloginunix wrote:

Let us imagine that you are doing the dishes

No, I'm not! I'm never doing the dishes when I'm here.

Anyway, I would stack the bowls upside down in the sink And pile them up the usual way as I wash them. Or my wife would mumble things about my mental sanity.

Title: Re: Doin' the Dishes
Post by rmsgrey on May 15^th, 2015, 9:54am

Cleaning a bowl is (at least) a two-stage process - there's the washing, and there's the drying. In between the two stages, it should be inverted so that the water runs off it rather than pooling within it...

After washing all the bowls, and then drying them, it's trivial to end up with the same stack you started with...