Television Cameras puzzle

Television Cameras puzzle

Damian Gordon

Television Cameras puzzle

• From G. Polya’s “How to Solve It”

• You work at a television station and are required to plug Camera ‘A’ into socket ‘a’, Camera ‘B’ into socket ‘b’, and Camera ‘C’ into socket ‘c’

• You are not allowed to cross the wires.

• It’s easy if the cameras are positioned as follows:

Television Cameras puzzle

• But what happens if we swap around camera ‘B’ and ‘C’

Television Cameras puzzle

• Where do we go from here??

• Solution follows:

Television Cameras puzzle

• In other words...