[silvajoao]

Care to elaborate? Is the solution presented in the original article incorrect?

BTW, the original solution yields 27 whites: 5 from the start, and then jar1 is used 2+3+3+3=11 times, yielding 22 more.

I noticed the solution in the article is in a "steady state", that can produce 6 whites every 3 steps, or 2 whites per step. The better solution by tlb produces 26 whites in 8 steps, but I didn't check whether it is sustainable (in the sense that after those 8 steps we have enough material to start over).

It's an interesting problem, and I couldn't even model it after a first glance using a graph or linear programming. Will try again later :)

[jaekwon]

The sample solution on the original article is incorrect.