Safecracking

Dennis E. Shasha

doi:10.1038/scientificamerican0303-108

Safecracking

Research output: Contribution to journal › Review article › peer-review

Abstract

The puzzle about opening the safe having 10 switches, each of which can be put in three settings, is discussed. There are exactly 3¹⁰ possible combinations of switch settings. The problem is of opening the safe in as few trials as possible given the setting of two switches.

Original language	English (US)
Pages (from-to)	108
Number of pages	1
Journal	Scientific American
Volume	288
Issue number	3
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1038/scientificamerican0303-108
State	Published - Mar 2003

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title = "Safecracking",

abstract = "The puzzle about opening the safe having 10 switches, each of which can be put in three settings, is discussed. There are exactly 310 possible combinations of switch settings. The problem is of opening the safe in as few trials as possible given the setting of two switches.",

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Safecracking

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