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The World Machine | Think Like A Coder, Ep 10

  • 236,808 Views
  • TEDEd Animation

Let’s Begin…

This is episode 10 of our animated series “Think Like A Coder.” This 10-episode narrative follows a girl, Ethic, and her robot companion, Hedge, as they attempt to save the world. The two embark on a quest to collect three artifacts and must solve their way through a series of programming puzzles.

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Meet The Creators

  • Educator Alex Rosenthal
  • Director Tolga Yıldız
  • Narrator Addison Anderson
  • Concept and Character Design Ali Anılır, İbrahim Hakkı Uslu
  • Character Modeling Elif Kaya , Hür Serhat Öz
  • Scene Modeling Tolga Yıldız, Saman Khorram
  • CG Supervisor Saman Khorram
  • 2D Motion Design Sena Celebi, Gürkan Gürler
  • Editor Serin İnan
  • Project Coordinator İpek Nurullahoğlu
  • 3D Animation Ece Gener Doğan, Emre Çamcı
  • Lighting and Shading Tolga Yıldız
  • Texturing Ali Anılır, Tolga Yıldız
  • Compositor Tolga Yıldız
  • Music Tolga Yıldız
  • Sound Designer Deniz Doğançay
  • Director of Production Gerta Xhelo
  • Editorial Director Alex Rosenthal
  • Producer Bethany Cutmore-Scott, Serin İnan
  • Puzzle Consultant Eric Wastl
  • Special Thanks Sara Kladky
  • 2D Animation Gürkan Gürler
  • See more creators
Additional Resources for you to Explore
Your allies (the other programmers) are at the crystal, and there are lots of them, and they all have spools of string. You’re at the beginning of the maze, and can give them instructions. You need them to efficiently map out the maze from their side and open the door so you can traverse it.

code.org (https://code.org) has great resources for students and teachers. It also includes an extensive curriculum mapped to K-12 curriculum standards (https://curriculum.code.org/csf-19/standards/).

If you’re looking for programming challenges, check out the Advent of Code, which is run by Eric Wastl, who consulted extensively on Think Like a Coder and inspired quite a few of the puzzles. The Advent of Code is a yearly event that takes place in December and involves 25 coding challenges linked together by an overarching plot. It’s also available throughout the rest of the year, and the challenges it features are a great way to stretch your coding and problem-solving skills once you have basic proficiency with a programming language.

FreeCodeCamp (https://www.freecodecamp.org) has thousands of coding lessons and programming challenges, and you can even get certified for a few different skills.

University of Michigan's Python for Everybody Specialization on Coursera (https://www.coursera.org/specializations/python) is a beginner-level intro to software development using python that focuses on interacting with data.

Microsoft has a 44 video series called Python for Beginners. In their words, “Even though we won’t cover everything there is to know about Python in the course, we want to make sure we give you the foundation on programming in Python, starting from common everyday code and scenarios. At the end of the course, you’ll be able to go and learn on your own, for example with docs, tutorials, or books.”

If you’re trying to decide what programming language to learn, a flowchart like this one may be a helpful starting point. 

BooksGirls Who Code: Learn to Code and Change the World by Reshma Saujani, founder of Girls Who Code, is an excellent introduction for programmers just getting started.

For more experienced programmers, Cracking the Coding Interview is a great resource for problem solving with a variety of different techniques, as well as preparing for coding interviews (as the title suggests). Some of the puzzles featured in Think Like a Coder were inspired by this book.

Avatar for Sazia Afrin
Lesson Creator
New York, New York, United States
What if the maze contained loops (as in, if someone were exploring it, they could return to a point they had already passed without ever turning around and backtracking)? What instructions could you give everyone to keep them from getting stuck going in circles?

09/04/2020
Avatar for Akash Verma 9th C
Akash Verma 9th C • COMPLETED LESSON

They tight a string around whole circle that this should not be entered for we can skip by via travelling around

09/27/2020
Avatar for Adrian Lobo
Adrian Lobo • Mumbai, India • COMPLETED LESSON

Hi. Just a suggestion. Views on 1st Ep of TLAC is 900K+ .. Next dropped down to 400K then 300K then 200K n lastly content reached to only 100K. In Future i would suggest and request to please create new Temporary Youtube Channels in the names of your Learning Playlist and ask people to subscribe to that channel and to hit the bell icon there. On that channel, just upload a short video informing about the release of a new one in the learning playlist. In that way u will be able to retain way more viewers. So sad to see such great efforts of sooo many people who collaborated to not be reaching a vast audience just coz of not having a dedicated notification button for Learning Playlist series (Something that Youtube should consider.), who upload content over longer periods of times. Much Love !! Brilliant series.

10/02/2020
Avatar for Malani Marks
Malani Marks • COMPLETED LESSON

They can probably run into walls and it would be ten times harder to get out. the maze.

10/07/2020
Avatar for Jayden Lucas
Jayden Lucas • COMPLETED LESSON

If the maze was looped then they could tie the string around the circle then cut it and put a wire there and go to the next stop.

10/07/2020
Avatar for Blair Willis
Blair Willis • COMPLETED LESSON

They could put string in the places they already travled.

10/07/2020
Avatar for Tristian Shields
Tristian Shields • COMPLETED LESSON

I can tell everyone to hold hands until we stop going in circles because holding hands Allow us to stay together and move at the same paste and time.

10/07/2020
Avatar for Kaliah Black
Kaliah Black • COMPLETED LESSON

If the maze was loped they can tie a string on were they started and then can cut the string and when its time to eturn they can follow the string back

10/07/2020
Avatar for Darionna Neely
Darionna Neely • COMPLETED LESSON

I would say you should turn around because it will send you in an endless loop.

10/07/2020
Avatar for La'Quan Harris
La'Quan Harris • COMPLETED LESSON

i would tell them to go a way that they havent went yet.

10/07/2020
Avatar for Sophia Herrera
Sophia Herrera • COMPLETED LESSON

If the maze contained loops they could backtrack. Some instructions that i would give everyone from getting stuck going in the circle are it is a whole circle so go around and go straight.

10/07/2020
Avatar for Joshua Williams
Joshua Williams • COMPLETED LESSON

If the maze had loops it would possibly be harder to do because there would be chances of running in circles or crossing the same place twice. Some instructions i could give might be to tell people in the maze to pay attention to their surroundings.

10/07/2020
Avatar for Nyana Roberts
Nyana Roberts • COMPLETED LESSON

They can find all of the dead ends and mark them to make sure they don't go to through the dead end or try to retrace their steps

10/07/2020 • 
IN RESPONSE TO  Show the comment
Avatar for Damian Farias
Damian Farias • COMPLETED LESSON

Well in the video it says if you use strings it can help the people and you so they know that there is a dead end there which if you keep doing it you will eventually get out. In the video it says if you use a string in the maze and there is a dead well you will cut it where the dead end is and continue with the rest of the string that is left and keep doing the same process until you get out. For example If I am in a maze and I have to get out well I am going to try to get out but I came across a dead end then I think to myself what can I do to not come back here, then I have an idea that I can tape where you can still go and try to find the path and I will continue until I find the exit then people who needs to get out can follow the tape. These are the instructions that I could give to everyone to keep them from getting stuck going in circles.

10/07/2020
Avatar for Chaunel Kitson
Chaunel Kitson • COMPLETED LESSON

To prevent them from getting stuck and going around in circles, they could tie the wire around the crystal and then place string at each dead end so the next person who goes through the maze could know where not to go. For example, when you are using a GPS, the GPS shows a red dot for every place you have stopped at. In the video it says,"it centers on the crystal, there are many dead ends but no paths that loop back on themselves."(Ted Ed,1). The video also states,"one of the challenges here is to indicate where dead ends are,so that the resistance members don't keep going down them."(Ted Ed,1). This proves that by marking each dead end with string it can prevent the resistance members from going in circles.

10/07/2020
Avatar for Skyler Harrington
Skyler Harrington • COMPLETED LESSON

If the maze contained loops to make sure a person does not backtrack, first the person is going to wrap the wire/string around the crystal. Then the person who is going through the loop and can not get out of it which is called a dead end they will put the wire by the dead end so that the next person knows that they can not get through that area. In the video the speaker states " ...tie down the loose end of your wire by the crystal, so it leads back there.If you find the door, open it and hand your spool to Ethic. If you're in a passageway, keep going until you hit a dead end or an intersection. But what happens to either of those places? If someone encounters a dead end, they should backtrack to the last intersection. They also need to mark it, so no one wastes time and goes back there..." For example if a person is in a forest and they encounter a dead end they will mark that spot with a string or whatever the have so they know they can not get through that way. Therefore...

10/07/2020
Avatar for Skyler Harrington
Skyler Harrington • COMPLETED LESSON

Therefore even if the maze had loops they would still do the same thing with the wire/string as they did in the maze without loops.

10/07/2020
Avatar for Erion Craine
Erion Craine • COMPLETED LESSON

They tight a string around whole circle that this should not be entered for we can skip by via travelling around.

10/07/2020
Avatar for Darius Williams
Darius Williams • COMPLETED LESSON

if it contained loops it would be tied up around the circle and then it would be harder to get out the maze

10/07/2020
Avatar for Najae Harris
Najae Harris • COMPLETED LESSON

if the maze contained loops they can do what they did in the video they could go through the loop see that its a loop go out cut the string and mark.

10/08/2020
Avatar for gahyeon jung
gahyeon jung • COMPLETED LESSON

I'm not sure everyone, but if we mark that 'here is not exit', at least it can help others.

10/19/2020
Avatar for Ying Wang
Ying Wang • manchester, United Kingdom • COMPLETED LESSON

Ok, thanks

10/23/2020 • 
IN RESPONSE TO  Show the comment
Avatar for Karim Arslanov
Karim Arslanov • COMPLETED LESSON

р

08/11/2021

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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 Alex Rosenthal
  • Director Tolga Yıldız
  • Narrator Addison Anderson
  • Concept and Character Design Ali Anılır, İbrahim Hakkı Uslu
  • Character Modeling Elif Kaya , Hür Serhat Öz
  • Scene Modeling Tolga Yıldız, Saman Khorram
  • CG Supervisor Saman Khorram
  • 2D Motion Design Sena Celebi, Gürkan Gürler
  • Editor Serin İnan
  • Project Coordinator İpek Nurullahoğlu
  • 3D Animation Ece Gener Doğan, Emre Çamcı
  • Lighting and Shading Tolga Yıldız
  • Texturing Ali Anılır, Tolga Yıldız
  • Compositor Tolga Yıldız
  • Music Tolga Yıldız
  • Sound Designer Deniz Doğançay
  • Director of Production Gerta Xhelo
  • Editorial Director Alex Rosenthal
  • Producer Bethany Cutmore-Scott, Serin İnan
  • Puzzle Consultant Eric Wastl
  • Special Thanks Sara Kladky
  • 2D Animation Gürkan Gürler
  • See more creators