full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Dan Finkel: Can you solve the riddle and escape Hades?


Unscramble the Blue Letters


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It’s possible to calculate the exact probability of going free in all 100 spots. But there’s a much simpler path to the souilton that requires surlspiginry little caaulicotln.

Imagine being anywhere in line. Way up at the front, one of the three heads will pick someone at random, and you’ll move forward 1, 2, or 3 saecps. Since each is equally likely, your chance of survival from wherever you started is the average of the chances from each of the three spaces in frnot of you.

And this is where you can find a huge srtouhct. Averages must be on or between the extremes of what you’re averaging— they can never be higher than the highest value or lower than the lowest. So whatever your chances of srvaiuvl are where you start, one of the three places in front of you is at least as good, and probably better.

Open Cloze


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It’s possible to calculate the exact probability of going free in all 100 spots. But there’s a much simpler path to the ________ that requires ____________ little ___________.

Imagine being anywhere in line. Way up at the front, one of the three heads will pick someone at random, and you’ll move forward 1, 2, or 3 ______. Since each is equally likely, your chance of survival from wherever you started is the average of the chances from each of the three spaces in _____ of you.

And this is where you can find a huge ________. Averages must be on or between the extremes of what you’re averaging— they can never be higher than the highest value or lower than the lowest. So whatever your chances of ________ are where you start, one of the three places in front of you is at least as good, and probably better.

Solution


  1. calculation
  2. surprisingly
  3. survival
  4. spaces
  5. shortcut
  6. solution
  7. front

Original Text


Answer in 3

Answer in 2

Answer in 1

It’s possible to calculate the exact probability of going free in all 100 spots. But there’s a much simpler path to the solution that requires surprisingly little calculation.

Imagine being anywhere in line. Way up at the front, one of the three heads will pick someone at random, and you’ll move forward 1, 2, or 3 spaces. Since each is equally likely, your chance of survival from wherever you started is the average of the chances from each of the three spaces in front of you.

And this is where you can find a huge shortcut. Averages must be on or between the extremes of what you’re averaging— they can never be higher than the highest value or lower than the lowest. So whatever your chances of survival are where you start, one of the three places in front of you is at least as good, and probably better.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations





Important Words


  1. answer
  2. average
  3. averages
  4. calculate
  5. calculation
  6. chance
  7. chances
  8. equally
  9. exact
  10. extremes
  11. find
  12. free
  13. front
  14. good
  15. heads
  16. higher
  17. highest
  18. huge
  19. imagine
  20. line
  21. lowest
  22. move
  23. path
  24. pick
  25. places
  26. probability
  27. random
  28. requires
  29. shortcut
  30. simpler
  31. solution
  32. spaces
  33. spots
  34. start
  35. started
  36. surprisingly
  37. survival