Imagine it’s just another Tuesday at the superconductor lab when suddenly, a small glitch traps you and your team in eleven different pocket dimensions. Luckily, there’s a half-finished teleportation robot that might help you all get back home. But there’s a catch: you need to figure out how to use it correctly.
The robot can teleport into the alternate universes where you’re stuck, but it does so randomly. It has two levers and one big button. Each time it appears, you must switch one lever from position A to B or vice versa. This action records your location, and then the robot teleports to another random dimension. If it shows up again, you have to pull a lever before it can leave. Pressing the button will bring everyone who has pulled a lever back home, but anyone who hasn’t will be lost forever. The challenge is to ensure everyone pulls a lever before anyone hits the button.
Right now, you can talk to each other over the interdimensional radio to make a plan. However, once the robot arrives, its teleportation technology will block all communication. You can’t attach messages to the robot or write notes on its super-strong body. The only way to communicate is by changing a lever’s position or pressing the button.
How can you make sure everyone gets home safely? If you want to try solving it yourself, pause and think about it.
It would be great if you could use different lever combinations to show who the robot has visited. But with only two levers, there are just four combinations, which isn’t enough for 11 people. There must be another way.
The trick is that not everyone needs to know when each dimension has been visited. If one person is responsible for pressing the button, only they need to track how many people the robot has visited. They don’t need to know exactly who, just how many.
You volunteer to be the person in charge of pressing the button at the right time. Here’s the plan: use the left lever to count visits, and the right lever won’t mean anything, so it can be moved freely. Everyone else will pull the left lever from position A to B exactly once. If the robot appears with the left lever already down, or if someone has already pulled it down before, they should move the right lever instead.
You will be the only one to reset the left lever from position B to A. This way, you can count how many people have been visited by the robot. When the robot visits you for the tenth time with the left lever down, you know it has visited all ten of the others. That’s when you press the button to bring everyone home.
It might take a while—probably around 355 teleports—but it’s worth it to ensure no one is left behind. One by one, your teammates return to your home dimension. The mission is a success… well, mostly.
Imagine you are an engineer tasked with designing a teleportation robot. Create a blueprint of your robot, including features that would help solve the multiverse rescue mission. Think about how the robot could communicate and track visits. Share your design with the class and explain how it would work.
Get into groups and role-play the multiverse rescue mission. Assign roles such as the person in charge of pressing the button and the team members who need to pull the levers. Use props to represent the levers and the button. Practice the plan and see if you can successfully bring everyone back home.
Calculate the probability of the robot visiting each dimension in a certain number of teleports. Discuss how probability affects the time it takes to complete the mission. Work in pairs to solve different probability scenarios and present your findings to the class.
Write a short story from the perspective of one of the team members trapped in a pocket dimension. Describe their experience, thoughts, and feelings as they wait for the robot to visit. Share your story with the class and discuss the different perspectives.
In small groups, create a communication plan for the team to use before the robot starts teleporting. Discuss how you would ensure everyone understands the plan and what to do if something goes wrong. Present your plan to the class and compare it with others.
It was a normal Tuesday at the superconductor until a bug in the system created a small situation. Now your team is trapped in eleven separate pocket dimensions. Luckily for you, there’s a half-finished experimental teleportation robot that may be able to get you all home if you can figure out how to work through the quirks of its design. Over interdimensional radio, your engineers explain that the robot can teleport into the alternate universes you’re trapped in, but it’ll do so completely at random.
The robot has two levers and one big button. When it appears, you just switch the position of one of the levers from A to B or vice versa, and then the robot will note your dimensional position and teleport to another of the eleven dimensions at random. If it shows up again, you’ll have to pull a lever before it’ll teleport away. When anyone presses the button, the robot will bring everyone who pulled a lever back home. Anyone who didn’t will be lost in the multiverse forever. The challenge is to make sure everyone has pulled a lever before anyone hits the button.
While you can talk to each other now over the interdimensional radio and agree on a plan, the robot’s teleportation technology will interfere with all attempts at communication once it arrives. You won’t be able to attach messages to the robot or scratch notes into its superstrong alloy body. Your only way to communicate information is to change the position of exactly one lever or hit the button.
What plan will make sure everyone gets home? Pause the video now if you want to figure it out for yourself.
It would be nice if you could set different combinations of the levers to indicate who’s already been visited by the robot. But it has only two levers, which gives four combinations—far too few to communicate about 11 people, especially when you’re forced to flip one to send the robot onward. There must be another way.
The critical insight is that not everyone has to know when every pocket dimension has been visited. If one person accepts responsibility ahead of time for hitting the button, then only they need to know who the robot has visited. In fact, they don’t even need to know exactly who’s been visited…just how many people have been.
You volunteer to be the person in charge of pressing the button when the moment is right and give the following directions to everyone else. Your plan is simple: you’ll use the left lever to count visits, and the right lever will have no meaning, so there’s no harm in moving it up or down. Each of the others will pull the left lever from position A to position B exactly once. If the robot appears with the left lever already pulled down, or if an individual has previously pulled the left lever down at any point in the past, then they should move the right lever.
You, meanwhile, will be the only one who ever resets the left lever from position B to position A. This gives you a way to count how many people have been visited by the robot. Everyone needs to pull the left lever down exactly once, and you’re the only one to pull it back up. So you know that the tenth time the robot visits you with its left lever in the down position, it must have visited all ten of the others. And that means you’re safe to press the button and teleport everyone home.
It may take a while—most likely the robot will need to teleport around 355 times—but better that than leave anyone behind. Your teammates phase back into your home dimension one at a time. The mission proves a great success. Well…mostly.
Teleportation – Theoretical transfer of matter or energy from one point to another without traversing the physical space between them – Scientists are exploring the concept of teleportation to understand if it could be possible to instantly move objects from one place to another.
Dimension – A measurable extent of some kind, such as length, breadth, depth, or height – In physics, we often talk about the three dimensions of space, which are length, width, and height.
Lever – A simple machine consisting of a beam or rigid rod pivoted at a fixed hinge, or fulcrum, used to move a load with less effort – By using a lever, the students were able to lift the heavy box with much less effort than they expected.
Robot – A machine capable of carrying out a complex series of actions automatically, especially one programmable by a computer – The robot in the science lab can perform experiments with great precision and speed.
Communication – The process of exchanging information or expressing thoughts and feelings – Effective communication is essential for scientists to share their research findings with others.
Plan – A detailed proposal for doing or achieving something – The students made a plan to conduct their physics experiment safely and efficiently.
Button – A small device that is pressed to operate or control a machine – When the button was pressed, the machine started to demonstrate the principles of motion.
Visits – Acts of going to see a person or place as a guest, tourist, or for a specific purpose – Our class visits the science museum every year to learn more about physics and technology.
Insight – The capacity to gain an accurate and deep understanding of a complex concept or problem – The teacher’s explanation gave us new insight into how energy is conserved in different systems.
Adventure – An unusual and exciting experience or activity, often involving exploration – Exploring the principles of physics can be an adventure, as there is always something new to discover.
