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Can you solve the basketball riddle? - Dan Katz

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375 Questions Answered

TEDEd Animation

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You’ve spent months creating a basketball-playing robot, the Dunk-O-Matic, and you’re excited to demonstrate its capabilities. Until you read an advertisement: “See the Dunk-O-Matic face human players and automatically adjust its skill to create a fair game for every opponent!” That’s not what you were told to create. Can you recalibrate your robot to make it a fair match? Dan Katz shows how.

If the human’s probability p of making a basket is greater than 50%, the Dunk-O-Matic cannot create a fair match— if the human goes first. If the Dunk-O-Matic goes first in this case, what should its probability be set to in order to give each player a 50% chance of winning the match?

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TED-Ed Animations feature the words and ideas of educators brought to life by professional animators. Are you an educator or animator interested in creating a TED-Ed Animation? Nominate yourself here »

Meet The Creators

  • Educator Dan Katz
  • Director Igor Coric, Artrake Studio
  • Narrator Addison Anderson
  • Music Cem Misirlioglu, Greg Chudzik
  • Sound Designer Cem Misirlioglu
  • Director of Production Gerta Xhelo
  • Produced by Anna Bechtol, Sazia Afrin
  • Editorial Director Alex Rosenthal

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