full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Dan Katz and Alex Rosenthal: Can you solve the sorting hat riddle?

Unscramble the Blue Letters


“The two founders of each house wore different colored hats with non-matching symbols. No founder started more than one house. Of fumnlafe and Imaginez, one was a founder of Gianteye and the other of Longmous. And of Miraculo and rbmbiley, one established Longmous and the other meaarimd. Finally, Septimus didn’t found Vidopnir.”

So… who founded what, and what’s the name of the srceet house?

Pause the video now to figure it out for yourself!

Answer in 3

Answer in 2

anewsr in 1

The hardest part of solving this lgoic puzzle is knowing where to start. No rule by itself is enough to assign a founder to his or her house, so the next best thing would be to combine a pair of rules to learn something. 4 and 5 are good candidates to try that with, because they contain a lot of constraints and both moteinn lomuongs. Miraculo and Rimbleby’s hats both have moons, which means that no matter who ends up in Longmous, moons will be accounted for. That means iniamegz, who also has moons, can’t have fdeound Longmous, so she’s in Gianteye and Funflame founded Longmous. Miraculo’s hat is red, so he can’t be there, so he must be in Meramaid and Rimbleby in Longmous. Halfway there!

Open Cloze


“The two founders of each house wore different colored hats with non-matching symbols. No founder started more than one house. Of ________ and Imaginez, one was a founder of Gianteye and the other of Longmous. And of Miraculo and ________, one established Longmous and the other ________. Finally, Septimus didn’t found Vidopnir.”

So… who founded what, and what’s the name of the ______ house?

Pause the video now to figure it out for yourself!

Answer in 3

Answer in 2

______ in 1

The hardest part of solving this _____ puzzle is knowing where to start. No rule by itself is enough to assign a founder to his or her house, so the next best thing would be to combine a pair of rules to learn something. 4 and 5 are good candidates to try that with, because they contain a lot of constraints and both _______ ________. Miraculo and Rimbleby’s hats both have moons, which means that no matter who ends up in Longmous, moons will be accounted for. That means ________, who also has moons, can’t have _______ Longmous, so she’s in Gianteye and Funflame founded Longmous. Miraculo’s hat is red, so he can’t be there, so he must be in Meramaid and Rimbleby in Longmous. Halfway there!

Solution


  1. funflame
  2. secret
  3. rimbleby
  4. logic
  5. mention
  6. founded
  7. longmous
  8. answer
  9. imaginez
  10. meramaid

Original Text


“The two founders of each house wore different colored hats with non-matching symbols. No founder started more than one house. Of Funflame and Imaginez, one was a founder of Gianteye and the other of Longmous. And of Miraculo and Rimbleby, one established Longmous and the other Meramaid. Finally, Septimus didn’t found Vidopnir.”

So… who founded what, and what’s the name of the secret house?

Pause the video now to figure it out for yourself!

Answer in 3

Answer in 2

Answer in 1

The hardest part of solving this logic puzzle is knowing where to start. No rule by itself is enough to assign a founder to his or her house, so the next best thing would be to combine a pair of rules to learn something. 4 and 5 are good candidates to try that with, because they contain a lot of constraints and both mention Longmous. Miraculo and Rimbleby’s hats both have moons, which means that no matter who ends up in Longmous, moons will be accounted for. That means Imaginez, who also has moons, can’t have founded Longmous, so she’s in Gianteye and Funflame founded Longmous. Miraculo’s hat is red, so he can’t be there, so he must be in Meramaid and Rimbleby in Longmous. Halfway there!

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
magical macademy 2
logic puzzle 2
secret house 2


Important Words


  1. accounted
  2. answer
  3. assign
  4. candidates
  5. colored
  6. combine
  7. constraints
  8. ends
  9. established
  10. figure
  11. finally
  12. founded
  13. founder
  14. founders
  15. funflame
  16. gianteye
  17. good
  18. halfway
  19. hardest
  20. hat
  21. hats
  22. house
  23. imaginez
  24. knowing
  25. learn
  26. logic
  27. longmous
  28. lot
  29. matter
  30. means
  31. mention
  32. meramaid
  33. miraculo
  34. moons
  35. pair
  36. part
  37. pause
  38. puzzle
  39. red
  40. rimbleby
  41. rule
  42. rules
  43. secret
  44. septimus
  45. solving
  46. start
  47. started
  48. symbols
  49. video
  50. vidopnir
  51. wore