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Topic: Real Life Down Elevator/ Up Stairs Problem (Read 2464 times) |
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SWF
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Real Life Down Elevator/ Up Stairs Problem
« on: Jan 25th, 2005, 7:13pm » |
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A common riddle that has appeared here several times, has a somewhat far fetched answer, and thinking about it brings to mind a real life situation that I have experienced. I used to live in a 17 floor building and would regularly do the following:
Take the elevator down two floors, the stairs up two floors, elevator down two floors, stairs up two floors, elevator down two floors, and stairs up two floors-- all in a span of less than a couple hours. Why did I do this?
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Speaker
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Re: Real Life Down Elevator/ Up Stairs Problem
« Reply #1 on: Jan 25th, 2005, 7:39pm » |
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Okay, how about this.
You live on the first floor, and in the sub-basement (two floors down) is the laundry room.
The elevator always returns to the first floor, where it waits until somebody needs it. So, you jump on the elevator and ride two floors down.
But, while you are putting quarters in the dryer or whatever, the elevator returns to the first floor. Being impatient, you decide to take the stairs when you go back up.
You do this several times because you need to check your laundry.
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Grimbal
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Re: Real Life Down Elevator/ Up Stairs Problem
« Reply #2 on: Jan 26th, 2005, 5:10am » |
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Maybe you like the exercise.
Maybe when the elevator goes up and arrives at the 15th floor, it is always full. But when it goes down from the 17th, it is always empty.
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BNC
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Re: Real Life Down Elevator/ Up Stairs Problem
« Reply #3 on: Jan 26th, 2005, 5:15am » |
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I live in an 18-floor building... and the elevators stop either empty, or on their way down. So, if you want to go down, the elevator will always be available. But going up from, say, the 11'th floor to the 13'th floor is faster by hte stairs (especially on "rush hours") than taking the elevator down to the ground floor and back up again.
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How about supercalifragilisticexpialidociouspuzzler [Towr, 2007]
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Grimbal
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Re: Real Life Down Elevator/ Up Stairs Problem
« Reply #4 on: Jan 26th, 2005, 5:34am » |
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on Jan 25th, 2005, 7:13pm, SWF wrote:
To meet your girlfriend? To meet your parents for meals? To bring your laundry to a neighbour that has a working washing machine? Maybe all 3 at the same time?
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Padzok
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Re: Real Life Down Elevator/ Up Stairs Problem
« Reply #5 on: Jan 26th, 2005, 3:40pm » |
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Taking out rubbish/garbage/trash ?
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SWF
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Re: Real Life Down Elevator/ Up Stairs Problem
« Reply #6 on: Jan 26th, 2005, 6:33pm » |
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Speaker is very close- I was doing laundry, but lived on 2nd floor with laundry room in the basement. Also it is correct that I don't like waiting for elevator (besides why take an elevator for just two floors), but why did I take it down, taking it down still requires waiting?
I like Padzok's idea, except I didn't regularly accumulate three trips worth of garbage before bothering to take it out.
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MisatoAeris
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Re: Real Life Down Elevator/ Up Stairs Problem
« Reply #7 on: Jan 26th, 2005, 8:44pm » |
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Are you asking if we think you like to carry a basket of laundry down stairs or not? I hate carrying laundry. Better to wait for the elevator than risk killing yourself on the stairs.
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Speaker
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Re: Real Life Down Elevator/ Up Stairs Problem
« Reply #8 on: Jan 26th, 2005, 9:32pm » |
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OK, how about this.
On the way down you carry big loads, all of your dirty clothes, so it is easier to take the elevator with the heavy bag.
However, the clothes require different methods to wash, the delicates and whatever. So, they finish at different times, or some are dried in the dryer and some by hangin in your apartment.
No, logic not working....
Hmmmm.
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They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. <Ben Franklin>
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SWF
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Re: Real Life Down Elevator/ Up Stairs Problem
« Reply #9 on: Jan 27th, 2005, 6:52pm » |
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on Jan 26th, 2005, 8:44pm, MisatoAeris wrote:| Are you asking if we think you like to carry a basket of laundry down stairs or not? |
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I would be carrying the laundry up the stairs at the end, so taking laundry on the stairs was not a problem. Doing laundry takes three trips: 1) put in washing machine, 2) come back to transfer to dryer, 3) carry home the clean clothes. For the 2nd step, I took elevator down even though was not carrying anything.
There is simple reason why I took the elevator down and stairs up- obviously more realistic than the standard reason given in similar riddles, because this is a real situation.
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Grimbal
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Re: Real Life Down Elevator/ Up Stairs Problem
« Reply #10 on: Jan 28th, 2005, 1:16am » |
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Unfortunately, the button going to your floor did not work any more due to your heavy use of it  . Maybe you like to press the button the "karate kid" way.
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Sir Col
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Re: Real Life Down Elevator/ Up Stairs Problem
« Reply #11 on: Jan 28th, 2005, 3:57pm » |
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on Jan 27th, 2005, 6:52pm, SWF wrote:| There is simple reason why I took the elevator down and stairs up- obviously more realistic than the standard reason given in similar riddles, because this is a real situation. |
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Whilst sorting your laundry someone else on another floor summons the lift away, but the call button, used to return the lift to the basement, does not work?
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Noke Lieu
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Re: Real Life Down Elevator/ Up Stairs Problem
« Reply #12 on: Jan 28th, 2005, 6:51pm » |
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when you have a basket full of washing etc, your hands are high or low?
When you have to go down in a lift, that's handy. But if you want to go up, that's tricky, because the numbers are higher.
Presumably the doors forthe stairwell didn't have handles on them?
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Padzok
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Re: Real Life Down Elevator/ Up Stairs Problem
« Reply #13 on: Jan 28th, 2005, 6:53pm » |
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on Jan 27th, 2005, 6:52pm, SWF wrote:
There is simple reason why I took the elevator down and stairs up- obviously more realistic than the standard reason given in similar riddles, because this is a real situation.
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If you live in a building, you get to know if it's quicker to get the elevator, or to take the stairs...was it just that you knew the average waiting time and chose the quicker (on average) option each time?
Alternatively, your gym instructor (to whom you pay big bucks) told you to walk up the stairs more often...she never said you had to walk down them too!
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MisatoAeris
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Re: Real Life Down Elevator/ Up Stairs Problem
« Reply #14 on: Jan 29th, 2005, 5:25pm » |
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On the way down, your laundry is dirty, and you really don't want to risk tripping on the stairs and landing in it. But on the way up, it's cottony fresh and smells good, so you somewhat want to land in it.
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SWF
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Re: Real Life Down Elevator/ Up Stairs Problem
« Reply #15 on: Jan 31st, 2005, 6:09pm » |
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Everything, such as elevator buttons, worked as the should, and I was able to press any button I wanted.
Repeating a previous remark that seem to have been missed:
For the 2nd round trip (to put clothes in the dryer), I took elevator down and stairs up even though I was carrying nothing. Why would a perfectly sane person such as myself do this?
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Speaker
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Re: Real Life Down Elevator/ Up Stairs Problem
« Reply #16 on: Jan 31st, 2005, 6:20pm » |
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There was a rule in the Apartment that if you were only going up one or two floors, then you should take the stairs. I have seen places where they do this to prevent congestion when a lot of people go from the lobby to the second floor.
Or....
This was a busy apartment building, and many schoolgirls in short skirts lived there. They would often go up and down the stairs. So, you, a quasi-pedophilic pervert inclined toward peeping at panties, would take the stairs so you could follow the students as they ascended. Hoping that you could catch a glimpse of their nethers.
Or...
The laundry room was outside the actual building. So, after exiting the elevator, you also exited the building. And, the door from the elevator to the laundry room locked automatically. Then you put your laundry in the machine or whatever. And then, to get back into the building you had to take the stairs to a door that would open.
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Grimbal
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Re: Real Life Down Elevator/ Up Stairs Problem
« Reply #17 on: Feb 1st, 2005, 7:18am » |
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Maybe it is a special elevator that works without electricity. The elevator goes down under your own weight, and when empty, goes up pulled by the counterweight.
Yes, why would a perfectly sane person do such a thing? 
Maybe it has to do with basic SWF psychology: when you are upstairs and you want to go down, you think "down". Therefore you naturlally go to the elevator, which is closest to your door. Once downstairs, you go wherever you wanted to go. Then, when going up, you think "up". Since the stairs are closer, you take the stairs. Then you go back to your appartment.
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SWF
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Re: Real Life Down Elevator/ Up Stairs Problem
« Reply #18 on: Feb 1st, 2005, 5:58pm » |
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Some of those recent guesses make some sense, and one is getting closer to what was really happening.
Come to think of it, one of the buildings I lived in after that one had an elevator with less waiting time. Yet while doing laundry I would take the stairs both down and up two flights of stairs, walking by but not using the elevator on each trip.
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John_Gaughan
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Re: Real Life Down Elevator/ Up Stairs Problem
« Reply #19 on: Feb 2nd, 2005, 10:35am » |
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Do you have OCD?
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MisatoAeris
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Re: Real Life Down Elevator/ Up Stairs Problem
« Reply #20 on: Feb 5th, 2005, 9:55pm » |
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Just to clarify...
How do you describe 'sane'?
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SWF
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Re: Real Life Down Elevator/ Up Stairs Problem
« Reply #21 on: Feb 7th, 2005, 6:38pm » |
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Here is a clue, which I though would clear from my previous comments:
For only two flights of stairs, I prefer to take the steps, even if carrying laundry.
That seems sane to me.
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Icarus
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Re: Real Life Down Elevator/ Up Stairs Problem
« Reply #22 on: Feb 7th, 2005, 6:57pm » |
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So the question is, why did you choose to take the elevator down each time, instead of simply taking the stairs?
Perhaps you have a condition that makes going down stairs a vertigous and dangerous occupation, but going up stairs is not a problem?
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Padzok
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Re: Real Life Down Elevator/ Up Stairs Problem
« Reply #23 on: Feb 8th, 2005, 1:30pm » |
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Maybe - on your floor - to get from the hallway to the stairway, you need to pull the door.
Then two floors down - to get from the stairway to the laundry room - again you need to pull the door.
Pulling doors is tricky with a basket full of laundry, so you get the lift instead.
But coming back up, you like the stairs because they are quicker. Even if you have a full laundry basket, you can push both doors.
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Icarus
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Re: Real Life Down Elevator/ Up Stairs Problem
« Reply #24 on: Feb 8th, 2005, 3:15pm » |
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Was the door from the stairs to the basement (where the laundry room presumably was) locked - making the elevator the only way in? But it could be opened from the inside, allowing you to take the stairs back up?
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"Pi goes on and on and on ...
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I wonder: Which is larger
When their digits are reversed? " - Anonymous
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