At their first and only meeting, one
prisoner is selected to be the captain.He
is also the counter.He is the only
one that may make the announcement to the warden.
The rules are:
The
left switch is the “real” switch, the right one is the “dummy”
switch.It does not matter how
the dummy switch is moved.The
function of the dummy switch is to avoid moving the real switch under
certain conditions.
Every
time the captain visits the room, he must move the left (real) switch down
if he finds it up, and adds one to his count.If the captain finds the real switch down, he moves the right (dummy)
switch up or down and his count does not change.
For
everyone else, if they find the real switch up, they move the dummy switch.
If
they find the real switch down, they move it up.They must move the real switch from down to up in two visits to the
switch room.After that, if they
are ever selected again, they never touch the real switch again and only
move the dummy switch.
The
captain must count how many times he finds the real switch up.After he counts up to 44, everyone has been in the room at least
once.
