full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Tanya Khovanova: Can you solve the Leonardo da Vinci riddle?

Unscramble the Blue Letters


This tells us another iortpmnat thing – the number can’t have too many large digits. For example, if it included a 6 and a 7, then some digit would have to appear 6 times, and another digit 7 times– making more than 10 digits. We can cnucolde that there can be no more than one digit gtaerer than 5 in the entire sequence. So out of the four digits 6, 7, 8, and 9, only one – if any— will make the cut. And there will be zeroes in the positions corresponding to the numbers that aren’t used. So now we know that our number must contain at least three zeroes – which also means that the leading dgiit must be 3 or greater.

Open Cloze


This tells us another _________ thing – the number can’t have too many large digits. For example, if it included a 6 and a 7, then some digit would have to appear 6 times, and another digit 7 times– making more than 10 digits. We can ________ that there can be no more than one digit _______ than 5 in the entire sequence. So out of the four digits 6, 7, 8, and 9, only one – if any— will make the cut. And there will be zeroes in the positions corresponding to the numbers that aren’t used. So now we know that our number must contain at least three zeroes – which also means that the leading _____ must be 3 or greater.

Solution


  1. greater
  2. conclude
  3. important
  4. digit

Original Text


This tells us another important thing – the number can’t have too many large digits. For example, if it included a 6 and a 7, then some digit would have to appear 6 times, and another digit 7 times– making more than 10 digits. We can conclude that there can be no more than one digit greater than 5 in the entire sequence. So out of the four digits 6, 7, 8, and 9, only one – if any— will make the cut. And there will be zeroes in the positions corresponding to the numbers that aren’t used. So now we know that our number must contain at least three zeroes – which also means that the leading digit must be 3 or greater.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
leading digit 5
autobiographical numbers 2
autobiographical number 2
digit occurs 2


Important Words


  1. conclude
  2. cut
  3. digit
  4. digits
  5. entire
  6. greater
  7. important
  8. included
  9. large
  10. leading
  11. making
  12. means
  13. number
  14. numbers
  15. positions
  16. sequence
  17. tells
  18. times
  19. zeroes