full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Dan Finkel: Can you solve the world's most evil wizard riddle?

Unscramble the Blue Letters


Through diagonal moves. There are, in fact, points that are distance 5 from each other, which we know thanks to the ptoygrahean Theorem. That states that the squares of the sedis of a right taglrine add up to the square of its hypotenuse. One of the most famous Pythagorean triples is 3, 4, 5, and that triangle is hiding all over your crshseaobd. So if mdolvroet was here, and he said 5, you could move him to these spaces.

There’s another inhsgit that will help. The baord is very symmetrical: If MoldeVort is in a corner, it doesn’t really matter to you which corner it is. So we can think of the cerrnos as being functionally the same, and color them all blue. slimairly, the spaces neighboring the corners behave the same as each other, and we’ll make them red. Finally, the midpoints of the sides are a third type. So instead of having to develop a strategy for each of the 16 spaces on the outside of the board, we can ruedce the problem to just three. Meanwhile, all the inside spaces are bad for us, because if MoldeVort ever reaches one, he’ll be able to say any number larger than 3 and go free. Orange spaces are trouble too, since any number except 1, 2, or 4 would take him to an inside space or off the board. So orange is out and you’ll need to keep him on blue and red.

Open Cloze


Through diagonal moves. There are, in fact, points that are distance 5 from each other, which we know thanks to the ___________ Theorem. That states that the squares of the _____ of a right ________ add up to the square of its hypotenuse. One of the most famous Pythagorean triples is 3, 4, 5, and that triangle is hiding all over your __________. So if _________ was here, and he said 5, you could move him to these spaces.

There’s another _______ that will help. The _____ is very symmetrical: If MoldeVort is in a corner, it doesn’t really matter to you which corner it is. So we can think of the _______ as being functionally the same, and color them all blue. _________, the spaces neighboring the corners behave the same as each other, and we’ll make them red. Finally, the midpoints of the sides are a third type. So instead of having to develop a strategy for each of the 16 spaces on the outside of the board, we can ______ the problem to just three. Meanwhile, all the inside spaces are bad for us, because if MoldeVort ever reaches one, he’ll be able to say any number larger than 3 and go free. Orange spaces are trouble too, since any number except 1, 2, or 4 would take him to an inside space or off the board. So orange is out and you’ll need to keep him on blue and red.

Solution


  1. insight
  2. triangle
  3. similarly
  4. moldevort
  5. chessboard
  6. corners
  7. pythagorean
  8. board
  9. reduce
  10. sides

Original Text


Through diagonal moves. There are, in fact, points that are distance 5 from each other, which we know thanks to the Pythagorean Theorem. That states that the squares of the sides of a right triangle add up to the square of its hypotenuse. One of the most famous Pythagorean triples is 3, 4, 5, and that triangle is hiding all over your chessboard. So if MoldeVort was here, and he said 5, you could move him to these spaces.

There’s another insight that will help. The board is very symmetrical: If MoldeVort is in a corner, it doesn’t really matter to you which corner it is. So we can think of the corners as being functionally the same, and color them all blue. Similarly, the spaces neighboring the corners behave the same as each other, and we’ll make them red. Finally, the midpoints of the sides are a third type. So instead of having to develop a strategy for each of the 16 spaces on the outside of the board, we can reduce the problem to just three. Meanwhile, all the inside spaces are bad for us, because if MoldeVort ever reaches one, he’ll be able to say any number larger than 3 and go free. Orange spaces are trouble too, since any number except 1, 2, or 4 would take him to an inside space or off the board. So orange is out and you’ll need to keep him on blue and red.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
evil wizard 2
number larger 2


Important Words


  1. add
  2. bad
  3. behave
  4. blue
  5. board
  6. chessboard
  7. color
  8. corner
  9. corners
  10. develop
  11. diagonal
  12. distance
  13. fact
  14. famous
  15. finally
  16. free
  17. functionally
  18. hiding
  19. hypotenuse
  20. insight
  21. larger
  22. matter
  23. midpoints
  24. moldevort
  25. move
  26. moves
  27. neighboring
  28. number
  29. orange
  30. points
  31. problem
  32. pythagorean
  33. reaches
  34. red
  35. reduce
  36. sides
  37. similarly
  38. space
  39. spaces
  40. square
  41. squares
  42. states
  43. strategy
  44. theorem
  45. triangle
  46. triples
  47. trouble
  48. type