Feature Image Photo via Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images
A light breeze tickles your face as you awaken outside beneath a clear azure sky. Although you can see nature in the distance, your immediate surroundings are overwhelmingly beige – you’re in some kind of industrial complex, on a large expanse of faded concrete punctuated with giant boxy buildings. You hear a bit of a hubbub nearby and turn a corner to see a space shuttle attached to a massive rocket! There are a bunch of people in light blue jumpsuits heading towards the shuttle, waving at folks in the distance. One of the be-jumpsuited people is a woman: it’s Sally Ride! She must be about to make history as the first (queer) American woman to go into space!
Suddenly, there’s a loud pop followed by a fizzing noise coming from the direction of the launchpad. Engineers swarm the area, trying to work out where it’s come from and whether the launch will be able to go ahead. You see a wisp of smoke coming from a panel on the side of the shuttle. No-one else seems to have noticed it, so you mosey on over to see if it needs attention. You flip the panel open and see various circuits and switches inside. You wonder if something has blown, because all the switches are flipped off and the lights are dead. You try turning everything on, but that doesn’t help – it looks like a certain combination of switches needs to be turned on to successfully activate the circuit.
Sally Ride, America’s first woman astronaut, communicates with ground controllers from the flight deck during the Challenger mission, June 21, 1983. (Photo via Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images).
Can you fix the circuit so Sally Ride can make it into space?
The circuit has eight switches, numbered 1-8 from left to right, and all are currently switched off. When a switch is turned on, it will output power. There are wires going from the switches via various logic gates to four terminals attached to the launch computer. All four terminals must be powered on for the launch computer to work.
There are three types of logic gates that may output power depending on what inputs they receive:
An OR gate has two inputs and one output. If either or both of those inputs are powered on, then the output will be on. If neither input is on, the output will be off.- An AND gate has two inputs and one output. Both inputs must be powered on in order for the output to be on. If either or both inputs are off, the output will be off.
- A NOT gate has one input and one output. This gate inverts the input: if the input is on, the output will be off. If the input is off, the output will be on.
Here is the circuit:
Description:
Switch 1 has one wire going out of it that connects to an OR Gate labeled A. Switch 2 has two wires going out of it. The left wire is connected to the right input of OR gate A. The right wire is connected to NOT gate C.
OR gate A and NOT gate C are the inputs to AND gate B. The output of AND gate B is connected to terminal 1 of the launch computer.
Switch 3 has a single wire going out of it, connected to the left input of OR gate D.
Switch 4 has a single wire going out of it, connected to the right input of OR gate D.
OR gate D is connected to the left input of OR gate F.
Switch 5 has a single wire going out of it, connected to the right input of OR gate F.
OR gate F is connected to the single input of NOT gate E. The output of NOT gate E is connected to terminal 2 of the launch computer.
Switch 6 has a single wire going out of it, connected to the left input of AND gate G. The output of AND gate G is connected to terminal 3 of the launch computer.
Switch 7 has two wires going out of it. The left wire is connected to the right input of AND gate G. The right wire is connected to the single input of NOT gate H.
NOT gate H is connected to the left input of OR gate I.
Switch 8 has a single wire going out of it, connected to the right input of OR gate I. The output of OR gate I is connected to terminal 4 of the launch computer.
What switches must be turned on to activate the computer?
(Enter the numbers without any spaces, in ascending order)
Additional Tools:
A Printable Version of the Sally Ride Puzzle
Listen to Nicole describe and read aloud the puzzle:
Sally, this is so much fun. Thank you for writing such great puzzles and fun scenarios!
I’m catching up on the last three puzzles today on the train, and I keep leaning over to tell my sister “I helped Audre Lorde shelve her books!! Queer history is saved” etc., after each one I solve.
(Luckily she is an ally and gives me a thumbs up or congratulations every time)
Forget a thumbs up, she should be giving you a medal for your services to keeping the queer continuum intact!
Sally making a Sally Ride-themed puzzle just has the ring of correctness to it. What a full-circle moment for queerkind!
This looked so complicated at first, but once I sat down with it, it wasn’t so bad! This was a new type of logic puzzle for me, I’ve never heard of logic gates before!
At first I was just in awe that you’d think I would mess with circuits on a space shuttle instead of finding someone in a jumpsuit or with a clipboard to do it.
But then I got it right and started wondering why I wouldn’t just fix it myself. Out there causing some dangerous levels of unqualified confidence, Sally.
I love this so much!