Skip to main content

Can you solve the stolen rubies riddle? - Dennis Shasha

3,691,846 Views

4,840 Questions Answered

TEDEd Animation

Let’s Begin…

Townspeople are demanding that a corrupt merchant’s collection of 30 rubies be confiscated to reimburse the victims of his schemes. The king announces that the fine will be determined through a game of wits between the merchant and the king’s most clever advisor – you. Can you outfox the merchant and win back the greatest amount of rubies to help his victims? Dennis Shasha shows how.

(Multi-pass Ruby Game) You can play this game with friends. Here is the general formulation: there are b boxes with r rubies (feel free to use less valuable pieces) overall and one box has d more rubies than one other box and there is a certain minimum per box m. You can play the one-pass version where you have to lay out all your cards at once with the usual rules or you can play a two, three, … pass scenario in which you play this repeatedly. What happens?

Sign in to answer question

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 Dennis Shasha
  • Director Milos Zivkov
  • Narrator Addison Anderson
  • Illustrator Stevica Zivkov
  • Animator Milos Zivkov
  • Character Designer Milos Zivkov
  • Content Producer Gerta Xhelo
  • Editorial Producer Alex Rosenthal
  • Associate Producer Bethany Cutmore-Scott
  • Fact-Checker Brian Gutierrez

More from Math In Real Life