The aim of this puzzle was to figure out how the two cars were going to both turn right without crashing into each other. We were supposed to use a sequence flowchart in order to help us find out exactly how this would work, by using the different times the lights would be active.
My partner for this assignment created a very complex looking Flowchart which was based on the North and South traffic lights being active at the same time. She put great consideration and time into this puzzle and tried to figure out a logical way for the cars to pass at the same time.
I, unfortunately, did not do this as I thought that the puzzle itself was a trick question at the time, and that one of the cars would simply wait for the other to pass before taking their own turn to prevent any nasty accidents.
Pedestrians were brought up as a possible wild card that could affect which traffic lights turned green and which turned red and when. However at a four-way junction like this, an example of which is actually very close to our college, when the pedestrian lights go green, they go green for every crosswalk, bringing us back to square one.
Of course, at this same real life junction the lights go green in the following order: North, West, South, and East. I know this because walking home after this lecture I actually stopped and waited at the junction to see what the result would be.
Of course this only furthered my thoughts of the puzzle being a trick question with no real answer. Regardless of whether or not there is a proper, logical conclusion, my own belief is that the drivers of the cars, being Irish presumably, would wait for one another to go first, locking themselves in polite stalemate.
No comments:
Post a Comment