How many times potentiometer to identify each wire in a three wire cable?

Question

You have a cable with 3 wires inside and if they were color coded like , it would be easy to tell which wires are which.

However, suppose they aren't color coded. If all you have is a potentiometer, which can detect if two ends of a wire are connected or not, what is the minimum number of times you would need to hook up the potentiometer in order to guarantee the determination of which wires on one end connect to which wires on the other end?

Answer 1

For the first wire it will take 3 steps to determine it's end. For the second wire it will 2 tries to do the same and the remaining wire end is that of the 3rd one. So it will take 5 measurements at the least if luck is not in your side.