DMcG, that doesn't work so well because white/black socks will remain intrinsically white/black socks and wine will just get diluted. What if you grab a black sock and put it back into the black sock box? You'd have 96 black socks (and 4 white ones) in the black sock box and 95 white socks (5 black ones) in the white sock box.

We're talking about liquids, not solids. It's more like figuring out PPM (parts per million). It's about concentration or ratio, not numbers.

You removed a tablespoon of wine from the liter of wine.
You add the tablespoon of unadulterated wine to the water.

When you mix the tablespoon of wine into the liter of water, there will be SOME wine in it.

You removed a tablespoon of solution from the liter of what once was only water.
You add that tablespoon of water and a little wine to the wine.

There is less water in the wine than water in the water, because you added a tiny bit of wine back in. You didn't add any water back into the water.

Dick Greenhaus, come back here!