Solving the Interesting Problem of the Last Bit of Water in a Bottle

  • Thread starter Thread starter ioscope
  • Start date Start date
  • Tags Tags
    Interesting
AI Thread Summary
The discussion revolves around testing the myth that the last bit of water in a bottle is primarily backwash. A differential equation is proposed to model the relationship between the amount of backwash and the number of sips taken from a 1000mL bottle, with each sip contributing backwash. The equation presented is dy/dx = 0.05 - 20(y / (1000 - (20 - 0.05)x)), but the author struggles to separate variables for a solution. A suggestion is made to change variables to facilitate solving the equation. The conversation highlights the challenge of mathematically modeling this interesting problem.
ioscope
Messages
1
Reaction score
0
There is a popular myth that after drinking a bottle of water, the last bit is mostly backwash. Well I decided to try and test it, but got stumped.

Lets call y the amount of backwash in the bottle
Lets call x the number of sips taken
The volume of the bottle will be 1000mL
Assume each sip is 20mL
Assume that each sip backwashes 0.05mL into the bottle

dy/dx= 0.05 -20( y / (1000 -(20-0.05) x ) )

I can't separate variables here, so I do not know what to do. This is not a homework problem, I was just wondering if anyone could help me solve this differential equation. At 51 sips there will be nothing left in the bottle.
 
Physics news on Phys.org
I tinkered with it a bit... try making the change of variables x' = 1000 - (20 - 0.05)x, then look at http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Differential_Equations/Exact_1 . I didn't take the calculation all the way through but it looks solvable that way.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
So I know that electrons are fundamental, there's no 'material' that makes them up, it's like talking about a colour itself rather than a car or a flower. Now protons and neutrons and quarks and whatever other stuff is there fundamentally, I want someone to kind of teach me these, I have a lot of questions that books might not give the answer in the way I understand. Thanks
I am attempting to use a Raman TruScan with a 785 nm laser to read a material for identification purposes. The material causes too much fluorescence and doesn’t not produce a good signal. However another lab is able to produce a good signal consistently using the same Raman model and sample material. What would be the reason for the different results between instruments?
Back
Top