wait. I have another idea! I’d go up to the attic with my radio and one of those plug things that screw into the outlet. Screw the plug thing in, plug in my radio with the volume all the way up and then flip the switches until I heard Taylor Swift AC/DC.
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There’s no time limit, right? For an LED light, flip the first switch on and leave it lit for a while (a month should do.) Flip that switch off then flip the second switch on. Go upstairs to the attic, picking up your electric bill along the way. If the light is lit, it’s the second switch. If it’s not, check your electric bill. If the bill is higher than normal, it is the first switch. Otherwise it’s the third switch you never touched.
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Put your phone in the attic and turn on video streaming with something like Facetime or Periscope. Go back to the switches and see which one turns the light on.
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Can I have someone in the attic yell down to me when the light switches on?
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That could work. You can also sniff the packets from a smart meter, if you are forced to have one, or count the blinks from the energy consumption indication pulse LED.
My favorite method is to look in the building documentation and see the wiring there. (The fly in the ointment is the frequent inavailability of said documentation, and the gradual unsyncing between written docs and the reality - such drift is very common in process plants of all kinds.)
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Turn on the first switch. Then go to the attic.
If the light is on, you’ve found the correct switch.
Otherwise, replace the bulb with a penny, shorting out the fixture.
Go back downstairs and turn on the second switch.
If a fuse blows, you’ve got the right switch!
Otherwise, it’s the third switch.
Now put out the fire.
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Easy! I pull the switch, diverting the trolley and killing the fat man.
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Just throw a bucket of water on the green one.
Huh? Switches? Hmm, I may have skimmed over that one too quickly…
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Go upstairs first. Replace the light bulb with a screw in outlet adapter. Plug a radio into the outlet. Turn the volume on full. Go downstairs and flip switches.
Second Option. Send someone else up the stairs.
Third option. Turn on one switch. Go outside and look up at the attic to see if the light is on. Repeat as necessary.
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My attic doesn’t have a light, never mind a switch to control it.
I’m not willing to enter a possibly dark attic and grope around in search of a possibly hot bulb; rather, assuming that the other two switches control things not in the attic, you simply determine which two switches those are. Plus, the attic bulb may be fluorescent, so the touch-the-bulb method is flawed.
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The problem is incomplete- for the ‘correct’ answer, you have to assume that the attic bulb is unlit and cold at the start. Neither of these are specified.
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Date someone
Get married
Have a kid
Change a million diapers
Raise said kid until they are marginally useful
Tell them to figure out which switch works the light … or else.
Why the heck bother having kids if you aren’t going to make them run and down stairs for you? You shouldn’t even have to touch the switches. Why? Because I said so!
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- Leave the trap door to the attic open. At night, play with the switches till you see the ‘light in the attic’ shining through the opening.
- Send someone up to the attic and play with the switches. When the light comes on, have him yell out “The light is on!”
- Replace the bulb in the attic with an electric buzzer and return to try switches till one triggers the buzzer.
…etc…etc…
Yeah, I like a lot of the solutions here much better than the original solution.
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Oy. My dad is a master electrician and was a volunteer firefighter for years because he watched his grandpa stuff a penny into the fuse box.
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Turn on switch 1 for 10 minutes, switch 2 for 1 minute, and switch 3 not at all. Run upstairs and see how how the bulb is.
Take your one trip to the attic with a number of small mirrors. Arrange them so that you can see the lamp from the basement. Play with the switches.
Get a multi-meter. Attach it to the three switches. The one that draws current is the answer. This assumes the other two do nothing.
Another ‘don’t try this at home’ solution
- Fill an incandescent bulb with black powder
- Make sure all the switches are off
- Replace the attic bulb with the black powder one
- Try each switch, you’ll hear when you find the right one
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Am I the only one that noticed that in the drawing, the “ON” setting is down instead of up? Do I get some cake for that?
Oh yeah, Oh, yeah, an African trolley maybe, but not a European trolley.
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