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Can you solve the sea monster riddle? - Dan Finkel

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  • 4,605 Questions Answered
  • TEDEd Animation

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According to legend, once every thousand years a host of sea monsters emerges from the depths to demand tribute from the floating city of Atlantartica. As the ruler of the city, you’d always dismissed the stories… until today, when they rose out of the roiling waters, surrounded your city and demanded a ransom of pearls. Can you figure out which chest of pearls is the ransom? Dan Finkel shows how.


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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 Daniel Finkel
  • Director Igor Coric
  • Narrator Addison Anderson
  • Animator Igor Coric
  • Storyboard Artist Igor Coric
  • Art Director Igor Coric
  • Compositor Igor Coric
  • Director of Production Gerta Xhelo
  • Editorial Producer Alex Rosenthal
  • Producer Bethany Cutmore-Scott
  • Fact-Checker Eden Girma
    • See more creators
Additional Resources for you to Explore
An army of sea monsters is holding your city hostage. You can save your city only by giving a ransom of pearls to the monsters. The number you give them must be evenly divisible by 7, 11, and 13. How can you decide which chest to give them, when you can’t read what number each chest contains?

Is there anything you can say about the other chests? For example, can you prove that the chest with the pattern ABA,BAB will always contain a number of pearls divisible by 37? What else can you say about it?
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TED-Ed
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New York, NY

Customize This Lesson

Create and share a new lesson based on this one.

About TED-Ed Animations

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 Daniel Finkel
  • Director Igor Coric
  • Narrator Addison Anderson
  • Animator Igor Coric
  • Storyboard Artist Igor Coric
  • Art Director Igor Coric
  • Compositor Igor Coric
  • Director of Production Gerta Xhelo
  • Editorial Producer Alex Rosenthal
  • Producer Bethany Cutmore-Scott
  • Fact-Checker Eden Girma
    • See more creators

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