Comment author: Good_Burning_Plastic 29 April 2015 12:03:22PM 1 point [-]

the original claim in the article was: "20-45-35 will open a lock set to 22-44-33"

Not as Aaron3 quoted it. (I guess EY has edited it since.)

Comment author: JasonHise 06 May 2015 06:27:59AM 0 points [-]

I somehow missed the 33-44 transpose in the quote. That would indeed be a wide variance.

Comment author: Good_Burning_Plastic 29 April 2015 07:18:16AM 0 points [-]

The point is that the two sentences quoted above contradict each other.

Comment author: JasonHise 29 April 2015 10:42:07AM *  0 points [-]

I disagree, a tolerance of 2 in either direction directly implies that starting from the solution you can round all the numbers up by two or round them down by two and the lock will still open.

Edit: To follow up, the original claim in the article was: "20-45-35 will open a lock set to 22-44-33", or in other words, a combination off by "-2, +1, +2" will open the lock.

In response to Worse Than Random
Comment author: Aaron3 11 November 2008 07:34:52PM 3 points [-]

A combination dial often has a tolerance of 2 in either direction. 20-45-35 will open a lock set to 22-33-44.

I certainly hope not! I think you intended 20-35-45 for the first or 22-44-33 for the second.

In response to comment by Aaron3 on Worse Than Random
Comment author: JasonHise 29 April 2015 07:13:34AM 0 points [-]

Cheap locks (like those used for middle school/high school lockers) have about as much variance as Eliezer claims. As horrifying as that may be.