full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Dennis Shasha: Can you solve the stolen rubies riddle?

Unscramble the Blue Letters


You’re both told the rules in avandce. The merchant will be allowed to discreetly divide his rubies among three boxes, which will then be placed in front of you. You will be given three cadrs, and must wtrie a number between 1 and 30 on each, before putting a card in front of each of the boxes. The boxes will then all be opened. For each box, you will rveicee exactly as many rubies as the nbumer written on the corresponding card, if the box has that many. But if your number is gterear than the number of rubies actually there, the scoundrel gets to keep the enrtie box.

The king puts just two constraints on how the scoundrel distributes his rubies. Each box must contain at least two rubies and one of the boxes must contain exactly six more rubies than another— but you won’t know which boxes those are.

Open Cloze


You’re both told the rules in _______. The merchant will be allowed to discreetly divide his rubies among three boxes, which will then be placed in front of you. You will be given three _____, and must _____ a number between 1 and 30 on each, before putting a card in front of each of the boxes. The boxes will then all be opened. For each box, you will _______ exactly as many rubies as the ______ written on the corresponding card, if the box has that many. But if your number is _______ than the number of rubies actually there, the scoundrel gets to keep the ______ box.

The king puts just two constraints on how the scoundrel distributes his rubies. Each box must contain at least two rubies and one of the boxes must contain exactly six more rubies than another— but you won’t know which boxes those are.

Solution


  1. cards
  2. write
  3. entire
  4. greater
  5. number
  6. advance
  7. receive

Original Text


You’re both told the rules in advance. The merchant will be allowed to discreetly divide his rubies among three boxes, which will then be placed in front of you. You will be given three cards, and must write a number between 1 and 30 on each, before putting a card in front of each of the boxes. The boxes will then all be opened. For each box, you will receive exactly as many rubies as the number written on the corresponding card, if the box has that many. But if your number is greater than the number of rubies actually there, the scoundrel gets to keep the entire box.

The king puts just two constraints on how the scoundrel distributes his rubies. Each box must contain at least two rubies and one of the boxes must contain exactly six more rubies than another— but you won’t know which boxes those are.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations




Important Words


  1. advance
  2. allowed
  3. box
  4. boxes
  5. card
  6. cards
  7. constraints
  8. discreetly
  9. distributes
  10. divide
  11. entire
  12. front
  13. greater
  14. king
  15. merchant
  16. number
  17. opened
  18. puts
  19. putting
  20. receive
  21. rubies
  22. rules
  23. scoundrel
  24. told
  25. write
  26. written