# Interesting problem

1. Dec 14, 2009

### ioscope

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.

2. Dec 14, 2009

### diazona

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 [Broken]. I didn't take the calculation all the way through but it looks solvable that way.

Last edited by a moderator: May 4, 2017