Once upon a time... A Puzzle

jeff hammond

Outside a room there are three light switches. Each switch is connected to a different light bulb inside the room.
Each of the three switches can be either 'ON' or 'OFF'.
You are allowed to set each switch the way you want it and then enter the room. you can only do this once.

Your task is to then determine which switch controls which bulb. How can you do it?

Ecuadorian

I ask someone to stay outside the room and help me.
I tie a string to one of the switches, then enter the room.
I call the architect and tell him how bad his design is for having put the switches outside.
I give up.

jeff hammond

@ecuadorian said:

I ask someone to stay outside the room and help me.

I tie a string to one of the switches, then enter the room.

I call the architect and tell him how bad his design is for having put the switches outside.

I give up.

haha #3 sounds good.
1 & 2 are not allowed. (or anything like those)
4 - nah - there's a real solution

oh, and i should add.. if you fail, something terrible will happen.. let's say nuclear war

remus

Is there a sneaky trick to it, or is there a combination of on/offs that you can set to work it out?

Ecuadorian

Ok, I cheated and found the answer online. I can give a hint: The thing you can only do once is enter the room.

And I'll give you a puzzle I've just made up. This one is for the Japanese speakers and Japanese language learners in the forum:
3txq
What is the next character in the sequence?

jeff hammond

no Remus. Nothing sneaky.

[edit] well, maybe.. there isn't a sole combination of on/off's that will tell you the answer.. there's something else to it but that something else is logic based.. not something you're going to be mad about when you realize the solution..

and yeah, you can only enter the room once.. you can do whatever you want prior to going in.

Daniel

@unknownuser said:

Outside a room there are three light switches. Each switch is connected to a different light bulb inside the room.
Each of the three switches can be either 'ON' or 'OFF'.
You are allowed to set each switch the way you want it and then enter the room. you can only do this once.

Your task is to then determine which switch controls which bulb. How can you do it?

Flip the switch, then look in the room through the doorway (without entering it).

jeff hammond

@daniel said:

@unknownuser said:

Outside a room there are three light switches. Each switch is connected to a different light bulb inside the room.
Each of the three switches can be either 'ON' or 'OFF'.
You are allowed to set each switch the way you want it and then enter the room. you can only do this once.

Your task is to then determine which switch controls which bulb. How can you do it?

Flip the switch, then look in the room through the doorway (without entering it).

nope - the room is light sealed.. no windows etc..

a hint - light bulbs are an important part of the solution.. if the switches were connected to electric fans for instance, you probably couldn't solve it..

Ecuadorian

Yes I could, at least with most ceiling fans

Ecuadorian

@unknownuser said:

Tomorrow does sheep will be at the same hour and at the same place on the way than today?

You never return to the same time and the same point in space

jeff hammond

@ecuadorian said:

Yes I could, at least with most ceiling fans

oh yeah.. i guess you could figure it out with fans..
i was going to use electric clocks as an example you couldn't do it with but that too would actually work.. an electric Digital clock (meaning - the display turns off instantaneously when the power is shut off) on the other hand - i don't think that would be possible.

jeff hammond

@unknownuser said:

an electric Digital clock (meaning - the display turns off instantaneously when the power is shut off) on the other hand - i don't think that would be possible.

ok, so i thought of a way you could do it with a digital clock as well..(and probably is the easiest of all)

i'll just go ahead and give the answer.. for ease of explanation, let's label the switches 1, 2, & 3:

set switch 1 & 2 to the 'ON' position
wait a minute or two
turn off switch 2 and enter the room
the light that is on is controlled by switch 1... the light that is off and warm is switch 2... the light that is off and cold is switch 3

and i'm stumped on frenchy's last question

pilou

@unknownuser said:

You never return to the same time and the same point in space

Read more the question

Teezer

Once upon a time, I got into a session with a couple of programmers who were trying to find a non obvious way to hide information in a binary format. This is one of the things we came up with.

The following sequence is valid under this scheme:

1 = 1
2 = 110
3 = 111
4 = 100
5 = 101
6 = 11010
7 = 11011
8 = 11000
9 = 11001
10 = 11110

Can you see why?

Jim

@unknownuser said:

Outside a room there are three light switches. Each switch is connected to a different light bulb inside the room.
Each of the three switches can be either 'ON' or 'OFF'.
You are allowed to set each switch the way you want it and then enter the room. you can only do this once.

Your task is to then determine which switch controls which bulb. How can you do it?

There's window in the wall and you can see the lights inside?

david_h

@unknownuser said:

Each of the three switches can be either 'ON' or 'OFF'.
You are allowed to set each switch the way you want it and then enter the room. you can only do this once.

Your task is to then determine which switch controls which bulb. How can you do it?

Model it in Podium.

Ecuadorian

@teezer said:

Once upon a time, I got into a session with a couple of programmers who were trying to find a non obvious way to hide information in a binary format. This is one of the things we came up with.

The following sequence is valid under this scheme:

1 = 1
2 = 110
3 = 111
4 = 100
5 = 101
6 = 11010
7 = 11011
8 = 11000
9 = 11001
10 = 11110

Can you see why?

Ok, wait, I've solved the first 5 digits. It seems that you have to subtract and then add the relative values of the digits. I'm not a coder, so I might be way off...

2 = 4 - 2 + 0
3 = 4 - 2 + 1
4 = 4 - 0 + 0
5 = 4 - 0 + 1

Ecuadorian

That's why I came up with my own puzzle, Pilou. Anyone wants to give it a try?

@ecuadorian said:

This one is for the Japanese speakers and Japanese language learners in the forum:
3txq
What is the next character in the sequence?

pilou

In Cheating
In fact now with Internet it's very difficult to find new problem
Solution is always somewhere

@unknownuser said:

From: Doctor Rob
Subject: Negative bases

Yes, there are negative bases. They aren't used much, but they are
quite interesting. They allow you to represent both positive and
negative numbers with only positive digits. For example, if the base
is -2, then you have the following equalities:
Base 10... Base -2
-11..... 110101
-10..... 1010
-9..... 1011
-8..... 1000
-7..... 1001
-6..... 1110
-5..... 1111
-4 ..... 1100
-3 ..... 1101
-2 ..... 10
-1..... 11
0..... 0
1 ..... 1
2 ..... 110
3 .... 111
4 ... 100
5 ... 101
6 ... 11010
7 ... 11011
8 ... 11000
9 ... 11001
10 ... 11110

Teezer

@ecuadorian said:

That's why I came up with my own puzzle, Pilou. Anyone wants to give it a try?

@ecuadorian said:

This one is for the Japanese speakers and Japanese language learners in the forum:
3txq
What is the next character in the sequence?

I know nothing about Japanese, but congratulations to you and Pilou for seeing that the sequence was base minus two. Most folks have never heard of negative base numbers.