Capacity

[Guest]

A man has a barrel that is full of vinegar. He removes 4 gallons and refills the barrel with water. Next he removes 8 gallons. There are 21 gallons of original vinegar remaining in the barrel. Calculate capacity of barrel.

[Guest]

capacity is 32 gallons

[Guest]

If there was 4 gallons vinegar taken out at start and 21 gallons vinegar left at end that gives a total of 25 gallons vinegar.
The problem is how much vinegar is in the 8 gallons mixed with the water.
If you say the capacity of the container is 32 gallons, then 32 - 25 = 7 . There must be 7 gallons of vinegar mixed with 1 gallon of water in the 8 gallons of mixture taken out.
the 21 gallons left is also mixed with water and every 7 gallons has 1 gallon of water so that means 3 gallons of water with the 21 gallons of vinegar
This adds up to 21 + 3 + 7 + 1 = 32 gallons of mixture at the end before the 8 gallons taken out.
The total vinegar then is 4 + 21 + 7 = 32 gallons.
The total water added is 4 gallons
The total is 4 + 32 = 36 gallons all together.

[Guest]

If your just wanting the capacity of the barrel, it is very simple. The first sentence is irrelevant because it was filled back up with water, the eight gallons were taken out with 21 remaining.

Elementary - 21+8=29.

Therefore barrel capacity = 29 gallons??

[Guest]

Elementary......maybe for Sherlock Holmes....

" Elementary ! .... Not so my dear Watson ! "............

Irrelevant ....???...because it was filled back up with water, the eight gallons were taken out with 21 remaining....Not so....
There were 21 gallons of the original vinegar mixed with 4 gallons of water when the 8 gallons of mixture was taken out.....

I am afraid a little more detective work needed to find who fired the final shot.......