The lights

Logic Level 1

You are in the attic of an old house.

There are 3 switches in the attic and 3 lights in the basement that connect to the switches.

You don't know which light connects to which switch.

What's the minimum number of trips you have to take to figure it out?

Note : Lights retain some heat after they're turned off.

Image Credit: Flickr kaitlin .


The answer is 1.

This section requires Javascript.
You are seeing this because something didn't load right. We suggest you, (a) try refreshing the page, (b) enabling javascript if it is disabled on your browser and, finally, (c) loading the non-javascript version of this page . We're sorry about the hassle.

6 solutions

First, switch on a light for 5 minutes (call this switch A), then turn off and turn another one on (assume this is switch B) and check.

The one is lighting is connected to switch B.

The one isn't lighting but hot is connected to switch A.

The other one is connected to the only left switch.

That solution is fantastic so long as it is specified that standard tungsten filament bulbs are in use. By all technicality, there was not enough information provided to answer this unequivocally based on heat that may or may not be present. Just saying :-)

Liam Spain - 6 years, 1 month ago

Log in to reply

Well, everything uses electricity conducts heat due to the resistance. Even for other bulbs than tungsten filament. Cheers :)

Trung Đặng Đoàn Đức - 6 years, 1 month ago

What if the bulb is out of your reach and u have no means to touch it as there is no info given that the bulb is within your reach.

Jay Bhatia - 6 years, 1 month ago

Log in to reply

Someone once gave a few people this riddle, but he actually had an old house handy with three lights rather than just doing a thought experiment.

Akiva Weinberger - 6 years, 1 month ago

Well in a situation of few info one assumes whatever makes the riddle solvable not the opposite and if it's wrong answer you can argue by the lack of information

Ahmed Obaiedallah - 5 years, 8 months ago

We are given the information about heat because it is a part the solution. So we must have a way of testing if a bulb is cold or not. Using an infrared camera or touching the bulb is not the important question here.

Bent. O. Jensen - 5 years, 7 months ago

Nice nice nice nice nice nice nice nice nice!!

Debmeet Banerjee - 5 years, 7 months ago

This question was dumb.

Jonathan Wilson - 4 years, 7 months ago
Mehul Arora
May 11, 2015

Let the switches be A, B and C.

Turn on Switch A. Keep it on for 5 minutes.

Now, Turn switch A Off, And turn On Switch B.

Now, Go up the staircase. The Light Which is Glowing Is connected to Switch B. Then, Touch the two remaining lights with your hand. The one which is Hot, Is connected to Switch A because it had been on For some time.. The last bulb is connected to switch C.

Thus, We need a minimum of 1 trip to figure out Which light bulb is connected to which switch.

Cheers!

Did it the same way!

This is a nice question but @Puzzlefizzy Is awesome , I think it needs to be mentioned that one needs to solve it practically not mathematically, because a mathematical solution would give the answer "2"

Archit Boobna - 6 years, 1 month ago

Log in to reply

@Archit Boobna , Do you mind giving a solution? I mean the mathematical One?And Great minds think Alike

Mehul Arora - 6 years, 1 month ago

Log in to reply

I mean, mathematically we don't think about things like "the bulb will remain hot" or something.

We would just consider that there are 3 reasons in the attic and 3 consequent results in the basement.

Let the reasons (switches) be A, B and C . We press switch A and go to the basement and see which light is on, that is connected to "A".

Then we'll switch off A and press B and go to the basement and see which light is on, that is connected to "B".

The bulb that is left is connected to "C".

So there are 2 trips.

Archit Boobna - 6 years, 1 month ago

Log in to reply

@Archit Boobna Yeah, That way! Okay XD

Mehul Arora - 6 years, 1 month ago

Switch A, B and C must result in three different conditions, 1: Off and cold, 2: On and hot and 3: Off and hot.

It does not matter how many possible combinations that are true. The point is that the answer can found out in just 1 trip.

Bent. O. Jensen - 5 years, 7 months ago
Matthew Burgess
Aug 25, 2016

Turn two lights on, turn on of those off.

One will be on, one will be warm, one will be off.

Debasis Rath
Jan 6, 2016

Well if I were any of you all I would have done it by the concept of electric current heat supply h= I^2RT hence h is directly proportional to t that is temperature and h is heat supplied so the more the time the switch is on more will be the heat radiated hence this problem is solved

Thomas Brown
Nov 15, 2015

You can figure out which switch works each light in one trip only if no bulbs are burnt out and all switches are wired so the circuits are open or closed when each switch is in the same position.

Aravind Vishnu
May 11, 2015

Light becomes hot when blowing. So put on the first switch for 10 minutes or so. then put on the second. Now go and check upstairs. The hot one belongs to first switch, the blowing one to second and the cool not glowing one to the third. \text{Light becomes hot when blowing.}\\ \text{So put on the first switch for 10 minutes or so. then put on the second.}\\ \text{Now go and check upstairs.}\\ \text{The hot one belongs to first switch, the blowing one to second and the cool not glowing one to the third.}

0 pending reports

×

Problem Loading...

Note Loading...

Set Loading...