Dang... I was even when I got here.

Pretty interesting paragraph from Wikipedia: "The operation of the door open button is transparent, immediately opening and holding the door, typically until a timeout occurs and the door closes. The operation of the door close button is less transparent, and it often appears to do nothing, leading to frequent but incorrect[55] reports that the door close button is a placebo button: either not wired up at all, or inactive in normal service. On many older elevators, if one is present, the door close button is functional because the elevator is not ADA compliant and/or it does not have a fire service mode.[56][57][58][59] Working door open and door close buttons are required by code in many jurisdictions, including the United States, specifically for emergency operation: in independent mode, the door open and door close buttons are used to manually open or close the door.[55][60] Beyond this, programming varies significantly, with some door close buttons immediately closing the door, but in other cases being delayed by an overall timeout, so the door cannot be closed until a few seconds after opening. In this case (hastening normal closure), the door close button has no effect. However, the door close button will cause a hall call to be ignored (so the door will not reopen), and once the timeout has expired, the door close will immediately close the door, for example, to cancel a door open push. The minimum timeout for automatic door closing in the US is 5 seconds,[61] which is a noticeable delay if not over-ridden."

@NathanScott Thanks for the comment! I think i gotta N/A this, bc the button works but in a way I didnt expect and makes perfect sense.

i’ll keep the market open for a day or twk if anyone wants to put forward a case against N/A.

@Bayesian "I plan to start a timer when i cross the door, and compare how long it takes for the door to close when i oress the close door button vs not." Just do this???

@NivlacM you don't know if -yours- works

@NivlacM That’s fair and as expected the times are similar, but the title of the market diverges too much from the fine print, hm

@Bayesian fair

Tricky to “measure” unambiguously as you are competing with two thresholds:

1) minimum time open after a sensory input detecting object within doorway

2) automatic time to close if no further sensory inputs detecting object within doorway

Fascinating, actually, cries out for an exploratory spreadsheet, intermediate hypothesis testing, and fine-tuning follow up experiment

Pretty sure there’s mandatory amounts of time modern elevators must be open for, so most times the button doesn’t work for x amount of time. It does eventually work, but it might be so close to when the door closes automatically that it doesn’t matter

@GabeGarboden that makes sense. I'll use a timer, and see if i find a reliable difference

Do you live in America?

@EmilyConn Canada

I'd do it while staying inside, and start the timer when the door has fully opened. Also keep pressing the button repeatedly until the door starts closing, or test pressing it at different stages (while the door is opening, after the door opened, etc.).

@lukres Thanks for the suggestions! I real’y want to keep the elevator blocking to a minumum, so for the purpose of this market I’ll only resolve YES if it closes the door faster in standard ways; if you need to press it the button 3 times in under 1 second or else it foes nothing, I’d consider that the button not working for example. I can try it while insife the elevator tho, good idea!

@Bayesian Sounds reasonable! My theory is that in many elevators the button only works for a short time before the door closes automatically.

How modern is the building/elevator?

@shankypanky Pretty young, maybe around 10-20 years