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Op doesn't have time for interviews (programming.dev)
submitted 10 months ago by to c/programmer_humor@programming.dev
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Post:

You have three switches in one room and a single light bulb in another room. You are allowed to visit the room with the light bulb only once. How do you figure out which switch controls the bulb? Write your answer in the comments before looking at other answers.

Comment:

If this were an interview question, the correct response would be "Do you have any relevant questions for me? Because have a long list of things that more deserving of my precious time than to think about this!

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[–] 1 point 10 months ago (4 children)

I think your house might be wired wrong if this is happening... The only thing I can think of is maybe if you've got some smart switch and no neutral, so the wifi in the switch has to power itself by leaking current through the light, which is a pretty unusual setup. I don't see how this could ever happen on a regular dumb switch.

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  • [–] 3 points 10 months ago (3 children)

    LEDs are so efficient that even microamps can power them. If your LED driver is cheap, it'll run on basically nothing, or charge up enough to start for a fraction of a second.

    The microamps come from a hot wire running next to a switched wire behaving as a capacitor when carrying AC voltage, letting microamps leak through. (It's not required that the light is on the hot side of the switch as I said previously, my bad).

    This can happen if the switch box is a terminal box with hot and switched wires in the same cable, which is rather common. Probably some other configurations too.

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  • [–] 1 point 10 months ago (2 children)

    Well, I can't say I've ever seen it happen, but I could see how it could happen in certain scenarios, especially if the LED has some weird driver in it. Maybe the capacitors in the driver would be allowed to charge up in some designs before getting dissipated through the LED in a flash?
    The simplest form of LED light (just a rectifier and a bunch of LEDs in series for a 120V diode drop), idk if you'd ever see any glow or flashes, since LEDs don't turn on until a certain voltage, and if you're getting like 50V on an open circuit that seems to me like you've accidentally built a transformer in your walls.

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  • [–] 2 points 10 months ago (1 child)

    A very low current transformer, more of kess yeah.

    Some lights will charge op and flicker, others have a constant glow. The speed/brightness depends on how long the wire is, so most residential lamps are unnoticeable even when it happens, but large rooms and weird wiring can make it more obvious.

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  • [–] 2 points 10 months ago

    I guess that makes sense it'd happen more in big buildings. The runs in most houses wouldn't be long enough to have a noticeable induced current without the electrician adding a few extra loops for fun :)

    Thanks for humoring my skepticism, it's been interesting to think about how this would happen.

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