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The three switches

Visual trapsLevel 2/5

A classic of indirect observation: you can't see the light bulb while flipping the switches, so you need to leave a clue that doesn't just depend on whether it's on or off.

In a room there are three switches. In another room, which you can't see from the first, there is a light bulb connected to only one of them.

You can manipulate the switches however you want, but you can only enter the light-bulb room once. The bulb is one of those that gets hot when it is on for a while.

How do you determine for sure which switch controls the light bulb?

Hints

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  1. You do not depend only on light.
  2. You can infer the bulb's recent past, not just its state when you enter.
  3. The second physical signal is temperature.

Solution

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Answer: use light and heat. Turn on the first switch and leave it on for a while. Then turn it off. Turn on the second switch and enter the light-bulb room. Upon entering, there are three possibilities: - if the bulb is on, the correct switch is the second one;

  • if the bulb is off but hot, the correct switch is first;
  • if the bulb is off and cold, the correct switch is the third one. This way you can identify with certainty which of the three switches controls the bulb by entering it only once.

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