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Can you solve the temple riddle? - Dennis E. Shasha

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TEDEd Animation

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Your expedition finally stands at the heart of the ancient temple. But as you study the inscriptions in the darkness, two wisps of green smoke burst forth. The walls begin to shake. The giant sandglass begins flowing with less than an hour before it empties, and a rumbling tells you that you don’t want to be around when that happens. Can you use math to escape the temple? Dennis E. Shasha shows how.

In the answer to the puzzle, you could have figured out the right path to take no matter where the potential liars were and no matter whether they lied or not. Sometimes you might not have enough resources to be sure. In that case, you use some notion of probability to create a strategy. Think of some situations where you used the odds of success to make a decision in the last week.

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Meet The Creators

  • Educator Dennis E. Shasha
  • Script Editor Alex Gendler
  • Director Outis
  • Narrator Addison Anderson

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