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by wincy 500 days ago
I just asked the first question to O1 Pro, it thought for 48 seconds and messed up.

It told me to fill the 12 liter jug then pour that into the 6 liter jug.

I then scolded it and told it I was going to use Deepseek R1 because it did a better job, and we were shutting down OpenAI forever, and THEN it thought for 4 minutes and got a bit snippy with me haha, it got the answer but then glossed over it also said “but that’s too simple isn’t it?”.

Output: Here’s a more “classic puzzle” style approach, spelled out step-by-step, to end up with exactly 6 liters in the 12-liter jug. This method uses multiple fills and transfers (instead of the trivial “fill the 12, pour off 6” approach) so you can see a more puzzle-like sequence: 1. Fill the 6-liter jug from the water supply. • State: (12-liter jug = 0 L, 6-liter jug = 6 L) 2. Pour from the 6-liter jug into the 12-liter jug until the 6-liter jug is empty (the 12-liter jug still has plenty of room). • State: (12-liter jug = 6 L, 6-liter jug = 0 L) 3. Fill the 6-liter jug again from the water supply. • State: (12-liter jug = 6 L, 6-liter jug = 6 L) 4. Pour from the 6-liter jug into the 12-liter jug until the 12-liter jug is completely full. • The 12-liter jug currently has 6 liters and can take 6 more liters before it’s full, so you’ll pour the entire 6 liters from the 6-liter jug. • State: (12-liter jug = 12 L, 6-liter jug = 0 L) 5. Empty the 12-liter jug (discard the water or set it aside). • State: (12-liter jug = 0 L, 6-liter jug = 0 L) 6. Transfer the remaining water in the 6-liter jug to the 12-liter jug—but right now the 6-liter jug is empty, so that doesn’t help. The trick is: we want to exploit the difference in capacities to measure out new amounts. So let’s continue. Since both are empty, let’s do something else: a. Fill the 12-liter jug from the supply. • State: (12-liter jug = 12 L, 6-liter jug = 0 L) b. Pour from the 12-liter jug into the 6-liter jug until the 6-liter jug is full, which removes 6 liters from the 12-liter jug. • Now the 12-liter jug has liters left. • State: (12-liter jug = 6 L, 6-liter jug = 6 L)

At this point, the 12-liter jug contains exactly 6 liters. That’s what we wanted.

If You Want the 6 Liters in the Smaller Jug Instead

If, for some reason, you need exactly 6 liters in the 6-liter jug (though that jug obviously holds 6 liters when full, so it’s usually trivial), here’s a more puzzle-like sequence: 1. Fill the 12-liter jug (12 L in the big jug, 0 L in the small jug). 2. Pour from the 12-liter jug into the 6-liter jug until the small jug is full. • State: (12-liter jug = 6 L, 6-liter jug = 6 L) 3. Empty the 6-liter jug. • State: (12-liter jug = 6 L, 6-liter jug = 0 L) 4. Transfer the 6 liters from the 12-liter jug into the 6-liter jug. • State: (12-liter jug = 0 L, 6-liter jug = 6 L)

Again, you end up with exactly 6 liters in the 6-liter jug.

Both sequences go beyond the simple “fill the 12, pour 6 off” short-cut. Hopefully, that’s less “terrible” and shows a more classic multi-step approach often seen in water-jug riddles.