"ludicrous" makes it sound like using binary is much more work. That's
incorrect.

Lets take the radio method.

If it happens to be the first breaker you switch one breaker. If it
is slot 2 you turn 2 breakers. If 3=3 4=4 say you have 12 on the
right and 12 on the left. The most switches you would make is 12.

Lets take the binary method.

You turn off all 12 breakers on your first try. If you guess right
you turn 6 back on, but if you guess wrong you turn those 6 off and
turn the other 6 on.

Yeah, you are using way too much brain power for this 10 cent project.

This doubles if it happens to be the second half. Try the math
again.


If you're using a light, or something else where you have
to go CHECK the outlet in question, then doing a binary search
makes sense. If you're using a noise-generator where you
can tell immediately on flipping a breaker whether you killed
the one you want, then it's nonsense.