How many nodes does this graph problem have

Question

Suppose 3 containers have sizes 10 pints, 7 pints and 4 pints respectively. Initially the 10 pint container is empty and the other two are full. This can be represented as (0,7,4) Contents can be poured from one container to another. I've made an example of a graph to represent this problem:

I want to work out either the number of distinct nodes in this problem or upper/lower bounds for it.

A node can have at most 6 children and at least 2. Perhaps this could be used to work out bounds.

Answer 1

I wrote a python code that quickly replicated the scenario, searching through each node and find all the possible scenarios. Source here

Results I found: $21$ nodes and $78$ edges. I have listed them below:

(0, 7, 4) {(7, 0, 4), (4, 7, 0)}
(1, 6, 4) {(0, 7, 4), (7, 0, 4), (5, 6, 0), (1, 7, 3)}
(1, 7, 3) {(0, 7, 4), (8, 0, 3), (1, 6, 4), (4, 7, 0)}
(2, 5, 4) {(0, 7, 4), (7, 0, 4), (6, 5, 0), (2, 7, 2)}
(2, 7, 2) {(0, 7, 4), (9, 0, 2), (2, 5, 4), (4, 7, 0)}
(3, 4, 4) {(0, 7, 4), (7, 0, 4), (7, 4, 0), (3, 7, 1)}
(3, 7, 1) {(0, 7, 4), (10, 0, 1), (3, 4, 4), (4, 7, 0)}
(4, 3, 4) {(0, 7, 4), (7, 0, 4), (8, 3, 0), (4, 7, 0)}
(4, 7, 0) {(0, 7, 4), (10, 1, 0), (4, 3, 4)}
(5, 2, 4) {(0, 7, 4), (7, 0, 4), (9, 2, 0), (5, 6, 0)}
(5, 6, 0) {(4, 7, 0), (1, 6, 4), (10, 1, 0), (5, 2, 4)}
(6, 1, 4) {(0, 7, 4), (7, 0, 4), (10, 1, 0), (6, 5, 0)}
(6, 5, 0) {(4, 7, 0), (2, 5, 4), (10, 1, 0), (6, 1, 4)}
(7, 0, 4) {(0, 7, 4), (10, 0, 1), (7, 4, 0)}
(7, 4, 0) {(4, 7, 0), (3, 4, 4), (10, 1, 0), (7, 0, 4)}
(8, 0, 3) {(1, 7, 3), (7, 0, 4), (10, 0, 1), (8, 3, 0)}
(8, 3, 0) {(4, 7, 0), (4, 3, 4), (10, 1, 0), (8, 0, 3)}
(9, 0, 2) {(2, 7, 2), (7, 0, 4), (10, 0, 1), (9, 2, 0)}
(9, 2, 0) {(4, 7, 0), (5, 2, 4), (10, 1, 0), (9, 0, 2)}
(10, 0, 1) {(3, 7, 1), (7, 0, 4), (10, 1, 0)}
(10, 1, 0) {(4, 7, 0), (6, 1, 4), (10, 0, 1)}
Number of states: 21
Number of edges: 78

And here's a visual representation of it. (The nodes are relabeled)

If you want to do the same for different starting configurations, bucket sizes or other stuff, it's really easy to change the code and do so, so feel free to ask below :)

Cheers! This is fun to code as well haha.