So my friend and I were hanging out, and she had this riddle for me. You know, those crazy "this is what you have, how do you figure out x?" riddles you and your friends go through late at night. Yeah, its one of those. I suck at them. She never told me the solution so I'll present it to you guys. Mind you, I don't know the answer, so don't ask me if it's right or not. So you have two rooms. One room has a single light bulb dangling from the ceiling and its not on. The room next door has 3 switches, all of which are in the "up" position. You basically have to figure out which one of the three light switches turns on the bulb in the next room, and you only get one shot to check the light bulb to see if its on or off. How do you do it?
Flip the first switch. Wait a while. Flip it off and flip the second switch. Go check the bulb. If it's on, it's the second switch. If it's off but warm it's the first switch. If it's off and cold, it's the third switch. At least, that's how I remember it. Way I heard it, the switches were down, not up, so I dunno if that has any significance. Maybe it's a trick and the bulb's burned out.
The answer is 'Google it!' type "Light bulb riddle"+switches into google. The first page is http://users.ameritech.net/iamperfect/ridlightbulb.htm Which is this riddle. Bam! I got the answer! 'cheating is a gift that man gives himself' - Mr Burns.
or the outside the box solution. Flip all three at once. see this is the problem with riddles. they assume everyone has the same method of thought, and expect only one answer.
But your method of thought does nothing to answer the question. The question is not to turn the light on, but rather, which switch specifically turns the light on?
