Zom-bies, alien over-lords, sharks, a mad dictator…math is a dan-ger-ous propo-si-tion in the hands of TED Ed script writer Alex Gendler.
The recre-ation-al math-e-mat-ics puz-zles he retro-fits for TED’s edu-ca-tion-al ini-tia-tive have been around for hun-dreds, even thou-sands of years. In the past, sto-ry-lines tend-ed to rely on bias-es 21st-cen-tu-ry puz-zle solvers would find objec-tion-able. As math-e-mati-cian David Singmas-ter told Sci-ence News:
One must be a lit-tle care-ful with some of these prob-lems, as past cul-tures were often bla-tant-ly sex-ist or racist. But such prob-lems also show what the cul-ture was like.… The riv-er cross-ing prob-lem of the jeal-ous hus-bands is quite sex-ist and trans-forms into mas-ters and ser-vants, which is clas-sist, then into mis-sion-ar-ies and can-ni-bals, which is racist. With such prob-lems, you can offend every-body!
Gendler’s updates, ani-mat-ed by Artrake stu-dio, derive their nar-ra-tive urgency from the sort of crowd pleas-ing sci fi predica-ments that fuel sum-mer block-busters.
And for-tu-nate-ly for those of us whose brains are per-ma-nent-ly stuck in beach mode, he nev-er fails to explain how the char-ac-ters pre-vail, out-wit-ting or out-run-ning the afore-men-tioned zom-bies, aliens, sharks, and mad dic-ta-tor.
(No wor-ries if you’re deter-mined to find the solu-tion on your own. Gendler gives plen-ty of fair warn-ing before each reveal.)
Put your brain in gear, pull the skull-embossed lever, and remem-ber, team-work — and induc-tive log-ic — car-ry the day!
The pris-on-er hat rid-dle, above, hinges on a hier-ar-chy of beliefs and the alien overlord’s will-ing-ness to give its nine cap-tives a few min-utes to come up with a game plan.
Go deep-er into this age old puz-zle by view-ing the full les-son.
Gendler’s spin on the green-eyed log-ic puz-zle, above, con-tains two brain teasers, one for the hive mind, and one for an indi-vid-ual act-ing alone, with a strat-e-gy culled from philoso-pher David Lewis’ Com-mon Knowl-edge play-book. Here’s the full les-son.
Rar-ing for more? You’ll find a playlist of TED-Ed puz-zles by Gendler and oth-ers here. The full les-son for the bridge prob-lem at the top of the post is here.
Relat-ed Con-tent:
200 Free Text-books: A Meta Col-lec-tion
Dan-ger-ous Knowl-edge: 4 Bril-liant Math-e-mati-cians & Their Drift to Insan-i-ty
Ayun Hal-l-i-day, author, illus-tra-tor, and Chief Pri-ma-tol-o-gist of the East Vil-lage Inky zine, will be lead-ing a free col-lab-o-ra-tive zine work-shop at the Glue-stick Fest in Indi-anapo-lis Sat-ur-day, July 9. Fol-low her @AyunHalliday
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