full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Daniel Finkel: Can you solve the multiverse rescue mission riddle?

Unscramble the Blue Letters


It was a normal Tuesday at the superconductor, until a bug in the sytsem created a small situation. Now your team is trapped in eleven separate pocket doeimninss. Luckily for you, there’s a half-finished experimental teleportation robot that may be able to get you all home, if you can figrue out how to work through the quirks of its design.

Over itnamdennoisirel radio, your engineers explain that the robot can teleport into the alternate universes you’re trapped in, but it’ll do so completely at random. The robot has two leevrs and one big button. When it arappes, you just switch the position of one of the levers from A to B or vice versa, and then the robot will note your dimensional position and teleport to another of the eleven dimensions at ronadm. If it shows up again, you’ll have to pull a leevr before it’ll teropelt away. When anyone persess the button, the robot will bring everyone who pulled a lever back home. Anyone who didn’t will be lost in the multi-verse forever.

Open Cloze


It was a normal Tuesday at the superconductor, until a bug in the ______ created a small situation. Now your team is trapped in eleven separate pocket __________. Luckily for you, there’s a half-finished experimental teleportation robot that may be able to get you all home, if you can ______ out how to work through the quirks of its design.

Over ________________ radio, your engineers explain that the robot can teleport into the alternate universes you’re trapped in, but it’ll do so completely at random. The robot has two ______ and one big button. When it _______, you just switch the position of one of the levers from A to B or vice versa, and then the robot will note your dimensional position and teleport to another of the eleven dimensions at ______. If it shows up again, you’ll have to pull a _____ before it’ll ________ away. When anyone _______ the button, the robot will bring everyone who pulled a lever back home. Anyone who didn’t will be lost in the multi-verse forever.

Solution


  1. teleport
  2. figure
  3. levers
  4. system
  5. lever
  6. presses
  7. interdimensional
  8. dimensions
  9. random
  10. appears

Original Text


It was a normal Tuesday at the superconductor, until a bug in the system created a small situation. Now your team is trapped in eleven separate pocket dimensions. Luckily for you, there’s a half-finished experimental teleportation robot that may be able to get you all home, if you can figure out how to work through the quirks of its design.

Over interdimensional radio, your engineers explain that the robot can teleport into the alternate universes you’re trapped in, but it’ll do so completely at random. The robot has two levers and one big button. When it appears, you just switch the position of one of the levers from A to B or vice versa, and then the robot will note your dimensional position and teleport to another of the eleven dimensions at random. If it shows up again, you’ll have to pull a lever before it’ll teleport away. When anyone presses the button, the robot will bring everyone who pulled a lever back home. Anyone who didn’t will be lost in the multi-verse forever.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
left lever 7


Important Words


  1. alternate
  2. appears
  3. big
  4. bring
  5. bug
  6. button
  7. completely
  8. created
  9. design
  10. dimensional
  11. dimensions
  12. eleven
  13. engineers
  14. experimental
  15. explain
  16. figure
  17. home
  18. interdimensional
  19. lever
  20. levers
  21. lost
  22. luckily
  23. normal
  24. note
  25. pocket
  26. position
  27. presses
  28. pull
  29. pulled
  30. quirks
  31. radio
  32. random
  33. robot
  34. separate
  35. shows
  36. situation
  37. small
  38. superconductor
  39. switch
  40. system
  41. team
  42. teleport
  43. teleportation
  44. trapped
  45. tuesday
  46. universes
  47. versa
  48. vice
  49. work