July 4, 2016 in Thinking Analytically

Elevators

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The building I work in has three elevators and 12 floors. Like some elevators, these have displays above them that indicate the current floor that the elevator is on and also the travel direction of the elevator.

The travel direction display can show Up, Down or Stopped indicated by an up arrow, a down arrow or a dash character, respectively. As an example, Elevator A in the image is on the 2nd floor and is traveling in the up direction.

Figure 1: Race to the bottom: Which elevator will get there first?

Table 1 displays 10 historic data points showing the floor and direction of the elevators from times that I have used the elevator in the past. The table also shows which elevator showed up first on the ground floor.

Table 1.

Question: For scenario No. 11, which elevator is most likely to be first to the ground floor?

Send your answer to [email protected] by Sept. 15. The winner, chosen randomly from correct answers, will receive a $25 Amazon Gift Card. Past questions and answers can be found at puzzlor.com.

John Toczek

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