Seemed like a good idea at the time

[yendi]

Hey, you know what really sucks about lights that are controlled by two different switches (say, one at each end of a hallway)? You can never know if the light's on or off. Wanna guess which position things were in for the light bulb I just went to change?

Comments

[snippy]

Not true: that kind of electrical switch works when the two controls are in different positions. If they're both up, or both down, the power is not flowing.

[yendi]

Heh. Yeah, I realized that after the fact. I wasn't sure if it was both in the same or different (and couldn't test it, since this is the only one of those lights I've ever had.

[pbristow.livejournal.com]

Well, you just need to memorise which combination of switch positions is "on" - It'll either be when they're in opposite positions, or when they're both the same.

Now, *I* grew up in a three-storey house where the stair lights had switches on all three floors... And the top was off-limits to us boys! *That* was a conundrum, but I figured out by the time I was 8 that if I could just *once* find out what position the upstairs switch was in, and immediately go down and check the other two, then I would always be able to figure out what position the top switch was in by checking the other two (unless the bulb blew).

It was the 1970s. My folks weren't rich. We kids made our own entertainment. =:o}

[pbristow.livejournal.com]

Sometimes it's the opposite way round. Depends who wired up the lights and whether they cared about consistency.

[nishar.livejournal.com]

Wanna guess which position things were in for the light bulb I just went to change?

The Zap position??? lol

[auryn29a.livejournal.com]

"My eyes! My eyes!"

[yendi]

It was the 1970s. My folks weren't rich. We kids made our own entertainment. =:o}

Heh. Back in the days when we walked uphill to school through miles of snow. Both ways.