Light Bulb Problem

[Ender]

There are two rooms, one with three switches and the other with three light bulbs. Each switch controls one of the light bulbs. You can't see which switch controls which light bulb. You can only go into the room with the light bulbs once. How can you figure out which switch controls which light bulb?

[abc]

Follow the wire? lol

[abc]

Flip one switch on, wait a minute of so, flip it off, flip another one on, flip it off, flip the third switch on, then go into the room, the hottest bulb (excluding the one on) is the second switch you flipped on. The warm bulb is the one you flipped on first.  :P

[Sidoh]

This riddle was asked of me a while ago.  I got it pretty quickly, but it's still a pretty good one.

[Rule]

It makes more sense to leave just one switch on for a long time, flick it off, turn another switch on, and then go into the room with the bulbs.

[Ender]

Yep, both of your solutions are correct. Good job :) Rule's is a bit more convenient but dlSteven's solution works too.

[Chavo]

You're assuming the lights are incandescent and are attached to a large enough power source to generate that kind of heat :)  Fluorescent lights would not retain any noticeable heat nor would very large incandescent bulbs on a weak power source.

That's right.  I went outside the box of your outside-the-box problem. 

[Ergot]

You're assuming the lights are incandescent and are attached to a large enough power source to generate that kind of heat :)  Fluorescent lights would not retain any noticeable heat nor would very large incandescent bulbs on a weak power source.

That's right.  I went outside the box of your outside-the-box problem. 

Florescent lights get hot :/

[Sidoh]

You're assuming the lights are incandescent and are attached to a large enough power source to generate that kind of heat :)  Fluorescent lights would not retain any noticeable heat nor would very large incandescent bulbs on a weak power source.

That's right.  I went outside the box of your outside-the-box problem. 

As Ergot said, I've noticed that ordinary florescent lights get hot enough to retain heat for long enough to perform this kind of experiment.

You may have when outside of the box, but I think you're being extremely nitpicky. ;)

[rabbit]

What if they were LED lights?  Dun dun dun.....

[abc]

rabbit: lol.

unTactical: Florescent lights get really really hot. I had a black light in my room that was a florescent light and that fucking would light your hands on fire if left on for 30 minutes+

[Sidoh]

What if they were LED lights?  Dun dun dun.....

If they were, I'd throw a brick at you!