Switches

In a building, there is a hexagonal room with one door on each wall. Each door gives way to a different room (six rooms in addition to the hexagonal one). Seen from the interior all of the six rooms are absolutely identical in content and dimension. They are empty except for a light bulb on the ceiling. (All bulbs are identical and have only two states (lit or extinguished). The four walls inside each room are smooth and white with a door on one of the walls opening to the central room. The rooms are completely insulated with nothing leaving the room unless the door is open. (There is no keyhole, no sound escapes, etc..) In front of each door, seen from the central room, is a button (a total of six buttons). There is no interaction between buttons. The hexagonal room is not affected by the action of the buttons; the hexagonal room is not important to the problem. A person must discover the function of each button with regard to its associated room. One does not know beforehand if the light in the room is on or off. (The rooms may be in different states at the beginning). Each button can be actuated only one time and remains blocked thereafter. The person can not actuate the button after having entered a room (that would be too easy). In each room there is a sheet of paper and a pencil; the person must write what is discovered before going out of the room. The doors are marked with a unique number from 1 to 6 and one must start with door 1. A person must approach the first button, press it and enter the room. He then must document the function of that button. He then must leave and approach the second button, press it, enter the second room, and document the function of the second button. He must proceed in this way through the third, the fourth, and the fifth. He must finish with the sixth to complete the task. Given that the explanation for each event will be different and the observations are always correct, what must be the outcome of the sixth button?

Note that the man is alone in the building, and that there is no problem with the electrical power supply in the building.

The answer is pi

I understood that a button can work (change the state of the bulb) or not and that each bulb can be lit or extinguished at the beginning. Am I correct? If so then there can be only four different observations.

the answer is 42

Yep, this is exactly what my hangover needs... buttons and mind warps. I am, however, going to wait for someone smarter than I to come along and solve this.

The answer is either 42, 'no thanks, I'm not interested', or "what he said"




If there's no interaction between the buttons, i.e. pressing the button of, e.g., room 1, has no effect on room 6, we can pretty much ignore room 1 to 5.
If I get it right, pressing the button may (or may not) change the status of the light bulb. The light bulb is either on or off. But for each room the explanation is supposed to be different.

We have the following possible states:
bulb on -> button press -> bulb off
bulb on -> button press -> bulb on
bulb off -> button press -> bulb on
bulb off -> button press -> bulb off

So, Elf is right. There are only four possible states

And as we do not know what the status of the bulb has been (in any of the rooms) before entering them, the answer for room 6 must be
"I have no clue whatsoever!"

Quote:

Originally posted by woodsworth

And as we do not know what the status of the bulb has been (in any of the rooms) before entering them, the answer for room 6 must be
"I have no clue whatsoever!"

Actually we do know what the status was. All we need to do is touch the bulb after entering the room:

if it's warm and extinguished -> bulb was lit and the button works,
if it's warm and lit -> bulb was lit and the button doesn't work,
if it's cold and extinguished -> bulb was extinguished and the button doesn't work,
if it's cold and lit -> the bulb was extinguished and the button works.

But that's still only four possibilities.

Quote:

Originally posted by ElFilipo

Actually we do know what the status was. All we need to do is touch the bulb after entering the room:

if it's warm and extinguished -> bulb was lit and the button works,
if it's warm and lit -> bulb was lit and the button doesn't work,
if it's cold and extinguished -> bulb was extinguished and the button doesn't work,
if it's cold and lit -> the bulb was extinguished and the button works.

But that's still only four possibilities.

Yes, you're right.

Actually, since the experimenter is to write down the function of the buttons in each room, musn't there be light on in all of them?

Quote:

Originally posted by woodsworth

[reply=ElFilipo]

Actually we do know what the status was. All we need to do is touch the bulb after entering the room:

if it's warm and extinguished -> bulb was lit and the button works,
if it's warm and lit -> bulb was lit and the button doesn't work,
if it's cold and extinguished -> bulb was extinguished and the button doesn't work,
if it's cold and lit -> the bulb was extinguished and the button works.

But that's still only four possibilities.

Yes, you're right.

Actually, since the experimenter is to write down the function of the buttons in each room, musn't there be light on in all of them?
[/reply]

I think it's possible to write in darkness (not that anyone will be able to read it afterwards). =P

Sure you can write in darkness, but finding pencil and paper is a real pain

We could add another possible state by introducing a defect bulb. But a) I don't think that it is intended and b) it doesn't really help since we'd still miss a sixth possible state.

Here is a better question - why does Davallia (sp?) keep changing his fucking name?

Quote:

Originally posted by woodsworth

Sure you can write in darkness, but finding pencil and paper is a real pain

We could add another possible state by introducing a defect bulb. But a) I don't think that it is intended and b) it doesn't really help since we'd still miss a sixth possible state.

Guess we'll have to wait for Dav to come and clear it out for us.

Quote:

Originally posted by Jack

Here is a better question - why does Davallia (sp?) keep changing his fucking name?

Some people change their avatars, other change their names.

I think this is that stupid number string on IQ tests

1 3 6 10 15 21

what's the next logical integer?

28

Quote:

Originally posted by ElFilipo

28

ok

**** 800 160 460 260
if the last equation used -2, what the number number line and what is the first number?
the answear is in the answears

Quote:

Originally posted by Jack

Here is a better question - why does Davallia (sp?) keep changing his fucking name?

So you have something to ask about =)

And nice to see everyone is committed ;DD