🚀 go-pugleaf

Tom Droege said:
   You are placed in a room with a compass and a voltmeter.  Through the room
   pass two superconducting wires.  [.  .  .]

John Hassler answers:
	 You left out engineers.  I'd cut the wires.  Then the answer is
   obvious.  (Your problem statement, above, does not exclude this solution.)

Doesn't work -- you were not given wirecutters.

This kind of solution reminds me of a Request For Proposals that was
issued by the U.S. Air Force about 30 years ago.  They were concerned
about possible ambiguities in the chain of command after a nuclear
attack and wanted a system developed that would determine with
certainty whether the President was still alive.

Inasmuch as I was in a nonprofit corporation that was doing systems
engineering for them, I proposed that they build a small radio-
controlled device to be attached to the President at all times.  In
case of uncertainty, the device would be remotely activated and a
small bomb inside would go off, thus resolving the uncertainty.
While this met their specifications, they found it unacceptable for
some reason.

--
Les Earnest           Phone:  415 941-3984    Fax: 415 941-3934
Internet: Les@cs.Stanford.edu              USMail: 12769 Dianne Drive
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