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TED-Ed

Can you solve the unstoppable blob riddle? - Dan Finkel

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6,073 Questions Answered

TEDEd Animation

Let’s Begin…

A shooting star crashes onto Earth and a hideous blob emerges. It creeps and leaps, it glides and slides. It’s also unstoppable: no matter what you throw at it, it just re-grows and continues its rampage. The only way to save the planet is to cut the entire blob into precise acute triangles while it sleeps, rendering it inert. Can you stop the blob from destroying the planet? Dan Finkel shows how.

Additional Resources for you to Explore

Imagine starting with a parallelogram instead of an obtuse triangle. What’s the minimum number of cuts to dissect this into acute triangles? In general, given any strangely drawn n-sided polygon, what’s the most number of cuts that would be required to dissect it into acute triangles?

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
Nemanja Petrovic
Producer
Milica Lapcevic
Director of Production
Gerta Xhelo
Editorial Producer
Alex Rosenthal
Associate Producer
Bethany Cutmore-Scott
Fact-Checker
Brian Gutierrez

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