Lightbulb-SOLUTION-Don't read if you don't want to know!

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>>>>> "caryle" == caryle clear <cpcj@sprynet.com> writes:

    caryle> Let's letter the switches A, B, and C.

    caryle> Turn on switch A.  Wait a couple of minutes.  Turn off
    caryle> switch A, and turn on switch B.

    caryle> Go into Room B.  The bulb that is lit obviously belongs to
    caryle> B.

    caryle> Touch the other two bulbs.  The one that is warm/hot
    caryle> belongs to switch A.

    caryle> The remaining bulb belongs to switch C.

    caryle> Share this one with the guys at work!!! :0

    caryle> (I didn't make this stumper up BTW.)  Anneliese

Of course, this takes advantage of several *UNSTATED* assumptions:

1.  The bulbs are incandescent, and of sufficient wattage to result in
    a perceptable change in temperature after a short period of operation.
    Flourescent lights do not heat up enough for this to work,
    and neither do other gas discharge bulbs, such as neon, argon, etc.

2.  The room is of a warm enogh temperature that the firstbulb will
    not cool down too much to still be detectable.

3.  Each switch independently controls one and only one bulb, with no
    interaction with the other switches and bulbs.  This last
    assumption was the subject of my previous discussion.

Do we have too many engineers on this list?  (Is one engineer too
many?)  Do engineers spoil all your fun?  For engineers, this kind of
technical discussion -- looking for holes in a design -- *IS* fun: its
called a design review!  Oh boy, oh boy, I can't wait until the next
one (just so long as its not *MY* design getting reviewed!).  :-)

-- 
--------  "And there came a writing to him from Elijah"  [2Ch 21:12]  --------
Robert Jay Brown III rj@eli.elilabs.com  http://www.elilabs.com 1 847 705-0424
Elijah Laboratories Inc.;  37 South Greenwood Avenue;  Palatine, IL 60067-6328
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