How to turn a switch into a switch and vice versa in one simple movement

This discussion was not worth starting, if only because we already had a bottle of cognac. But Kolya, my friend and also a professional electrician, tenaciously held my sleeve with a firm intention to prove that the "on" and "switch" are different electrical appliances.

It turns out that a switch can become a switch and vice versa. To finally get confused in this matter, it took us about an hour and another bottle of Hennessy.

- Understand. You just understand, - Kolya began. It all depends on the mode of operation.

Your light is on all day. Then you push the button and it turns off - this is a switch.

But you have a light bulb on the second balcony. You use it twice a year: when you need to find an ice screw before fishing in the dark, or when your wife asks to hide the children's present until the New Year. This light connected via a switch.

- That is, what happens? If you turn on something for a while -

this is a switch. And if you turn off something for a while - this is a switch?

- Well! Of course! Did you get it ?!

And then I remember my usual morning.

I wake up from the fact that my wife climbs on top of me, gently stretches out her hand, barely touching her face, reaches for the nightstand, presses the alarm button and begins to get ready for work.

- Nikolay, how to write an alarm clock into your theory? I turn it off for a day. So, by definition, a button on it is a switch. But I don't include it at all. It turns on itself.

— Exceptions only prove the rule! And Kolya solemnly raises his hand. If the glasses were glass, there would be a resounding "dzin". Having celebrated the first victory, we continue.

Evidence of the switch-and-switch theory is pouring in one after another. We find dozens of examples and exceptions. We reinforce each success with a solemn "ding".

With each new "victory" the fervor of the discussion fades away. It comes to the point that from the moment when I want to express something to the interlocutor to the moment when the lips begin to pronounce it passes... one... two... three... - five seconds.

Yes, it is troublesome business to conduct scientific research, risking their health. It's time, perhaps, to rest.

We go home. Then my usual morning begins. From the same switch on the alarm clock. Or a switch. We need to somehow set aside time, call Kolya and finally sort out this issue.