full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Alex Gendler: Can you solve the dragon jousting riddle?

Unscramble the Blue Letters


You’ve only got one chance to save yourself, so what’s the real sorce of each match?

Pause now to figure it out for yourself.

The incredible thing about this riddle is that you can reach the solution despite an almost complete lack of correct information. And that’s possible because kninwog that something is false is meaningful information in its own right.

The first key is to realize that no team will play more than two matches, since there are only two other teams. So if the elves didn’t actually play one match, and the goblins didn’t actually play two, the trtuh must be that elves played two and goblins played one. For the elevs to have peayld two matches, they must’ve faced each of the other teams once. And since goblins have only played one mcath so far— against the elves— that means the match between goblins and treefolk has not occurred yet.

Open Cloze


You’ve only got one chance to save yourself, so what’s the real _____ of each match?

Pause now to figure it out for yourself.

The incredible thing about this riddle is that you can reach the solution despite an almost complete lack of correct information. And that’s possible because _______ that something is false is meaningful information in its own right.

The first key is to realize that no team will play more than two matches, since there are only two other teams. So if the elves didn’t actually play one match, and the goblins didn’t actually play two, the _____ must be that elves played two and goblins played one. For the _____ to have ______ two matches, they must’ve faced each of the other teams once. And since goblins have only played one _____ so far— against the elves— that means the match between goblins and treefolk has not occurred yet.

Solution


  1. elves
  2. truth
  3. score
  4. match
  5. knowing
  6. played

Original Text


You’ve only got one chance to save yourself, so what’s the real score of each match?

Pause now to figure it out for yourself.

The incredible thing about this riddle is that you can reach the solution despite an almost complete lack of correct information. And that’s possible because knowing that something is false is meaningful information in its own right.

The first key is to realize that no team will play more than two matches, since there are only two other teams. So if the elves didn’t actually play one match, and the goblins didn’t actually play two, the truth must be that elves played two and goblins played one. For the elves to have played two matches, they must’ve faced each of the other teams once. And since goblins have only played one match so far— against the elves— that means the match between goblins and treefolk has not occurred yet.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
total hits 2


Important Words


  1. chance
  2. complete
  3. correct
  4. elves
  5. faced
  6. false
  7. figure
  8. goblins
  9. incredible
  10. information
  11. key
  12. knowing
  13. lack
  14. match
  15. matches
  16. meaningful
  17. means
  18. occurred
  19. pause
  20. play
  21. played
  22. reach
  23. real
  24. realize
  25. riddle
  26. save
  27. score
  28. solution
  29. team
  30. teams
  31. treefolk
  32. truth