Can you solve the birthday cake riddle? - Marie Brodsky

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  • เผยแพร่เมื่อ 19 ม.ค. 2022
  • Practice more problem-solving at brilliant.org/TedEd
    --
    Your friend’s birthday is tomorrow, and he’s turning… well… you’ve forgotten. A ginormous cake has been prepared and your job is to sculpt his age as the chocolate centerpiece. The birthday boy is a giant, and you’re afraid that if your forgetfulness becomes known, you’ll become part of the feast. Can you figure out your friend’s age before the party? Marie Brodsky shows how.
    Lesson by Marie Brodsky, directed by Igor Coric, Artrake Studio.
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ความคิดเห็น • 2.2K

  • @TEDEd
    @TEDEd  2 ปีที่แล้ว +369

    Visit brilliant.org/TedEd to check out Brilliant’s 60+ courses in math, logic, science, and computer science. They feature storytelling, code-writing, interactive challenges, and plenty of puzzles for you to solve. And as an added bonus, the first 833 of you to use that link will receive 20% off the annual premium subscription fee.

    • @aniruddhxie2k215
      @aniruddhxie2k215 2 ปีที่แล้ว +3

      First 🥇

    • @curiouslight498
      @curiouslight498 2 ปีที่แล้ว +2

      Woah, Thanks man! I will surely check this out.

    • @radiical6883
      @radiical6883 2 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      O

    • @LOL_MANN
      @LOL_MANN 2 ปีที่แล้ว +3

      He forgor 💀

    • @pinecone2214
      @pinecone2214 2 ปีที่แล้ว +3

      I think I may have a more efficient solution. What if you were to keep traveling until you see a pattern repeat twice, assuming the pattern length is at least 2, then swap the last candle and go back and see if the last candle in the first itteration changed. If you don't see the new change, now travel forward and do the same again assuming the new pattern length's minimum is that of the total length you've seen so far. Assuming you aren't extremely unlucky with coincidental repeating patterns, then you will only travel to 2x the age, then travel back to a total of 3x+1 of the age. If there are repeating patterns, the minimum length will at least double each time, so it shouldn't take too long, and assuming the candles are completely randomly lit or unlit, the chance of the whole length being just all 1s or all 0s or a similarly highly repeating pattern is low, so you won't be back tracking much.
      Of course, this requires having a good memory or bringing something to write on or something, because it is more complex, and that might be invalid idk.

  • @samcarpenter7104
    @samcarpenter7104 2 ปีที่แล้ว +7200

    The real riddle here is why I keep hanging out with giants who can and will eat me for minor things.

    • @arqamshakeel1152
      @arqamshakeel1152 2 ปีที่แล้ว +300

      Because that giant is the owner of amazon and you work for amazon

    • @samcarpenter7104
      @samcarpenter7104 2 ปีที่แล้ว +156

      @@arqamshakeel1152 I need a new job.

    • @HuyHoang-ex6pc
      @HuyHoang-ex6pc 2 ปีที่แล้ว +59

      Wow congrats on getting a heart by TedEd

    • @quinlynnnelson5030
      @quinlynnnelson5030 2 ปีที่แล้ว +46

      It's wild reading this comment before the video has started

    • @inazumarai7690
      @inazumarai7690 2 ปีที่แล้ว +10

      because anything else would be too boring

  • @OzziePerez1988
    @OzziePerez1988 2 ปีที่แล้ว +6218

    I would just ask the baker since he's the one that installed on the candles 😂

    • @dankauthor3364
      @dankauthor3364 2 ปีที่แล้ว +345

      I like the use of the word installed

    • @JonahWho
      @JonahWho 2 ปีที่แล้ว +86

      big brain

    • @marshmallowdapatria3207
      @marshmallowdapatria3207 2 ปีที่แล้ว +323

      actually ,the baker will tell the others that you don't know the age and you'll be the dinner

    • @ggz21
      @ggz21 2 ปีที่แล้ว +75

      Why not be the baker instead, so that you'd know from the giant directly?

    • @stephn2351
      @stephn2351 2 ปีที่แล้ว +10

      👏👏👏

  • @teamcyeborg
    @teamcyeborg ปีที่แล้ว +700

    Honestly immediate brute-force strategy was to go through and turn off every candle that you come across until you stop coming across lit ones. Pick a random spot and light it; Now go loop around and count the candles until you see a lit one. Turn it off (and/or turn on the two around it, or some other pattern to mark it off) and circle back around the same number of candles. If it changed, you've got his age.

    • @lifeartandall3323
      @lifeartandall3323 ปีที่แล้ว +71

      The problem with that i guess is that the giant may be really old, such as 1,000, and you may have not turned off all the candles

    • @infinitive995
      @infinitive995 ปีที่แล้ว +114

      @@lifeartandall3323 better than looping the whole candles 21 times as in solution!

    • @malickkingofficial3787
      @malickkingofficial3787 11 หลายเดือนก่อน +8

      This is what I was thinking

    • @awesomenova09
      @awesomenova09 11 หลายเดือนก่อน +2

      Exactly

    • @dareeldmt9310
      @dareeldmt9310 10 หลายเดือนก่อน +21

      That wouldn't work I had the same idea but realised it wouldn't work (all the time, it might work in very short loops), if you you didn't mark any start state and just proceeded to try and turn them all off you might get confused as:
      1. Inside the cake you have no idea where you are and how far you have gone since they all look identical ( you wouldn't be sure to sure where to stop since a lot of candles might already be off)
      2. Thus you might not end up turning off the candles.
      3. If that is the case and you did not turn off all the candles🕯️ and you proceeded to turn one on and started counting till you encountered the lit candle.
      You could potentially run into error as again you might have not turned off all candles and when you encounter a lit candle, it might not truely be the one you lit ultimately leading you to count the wrong number of candles.

  • @spodreman7732
    @spodreman7732 2 ปีที่แล้ว +735

    Answers I think should be possible:
    1. You should have some sense of where you started, based on the path you took to enter the cake’s interior. Start counting from there until you reach that starting point again.
    2. Ask the baker if he/she put enough candles on the cake, keep asking until they unknowingly give away the age.
    3. Verify you have green eyes, then leave the giant’s house.

    • @aquamarie3117
      @aquamarie3117 ปีที่แล้ว +145

      "Are you sure there are enough candles on the cake?"
      "Ozo"

    • @stapoldy_propaganda_account
      @stapoldy_propaganda_account ปีที่แล้ว +38

      get in a line alongside the giants and baker and have aliens quiz you on your hat colours

    • @catshal1067
      @catshal1067 11 หลายเดือนก่อน +25

      Man ever since that island riddle with the dictator dude, everyone’s talking about green eyes.

    • @evinnie6816
      @evinnie6816 11 หลายเดือนก่อน +18

      tell the giant that at least one of the bakers has green eyes

    • @3amjeed463
      @3amjeed463 10 หลายเดือนก่อน +7

      Or you can just turn them all off and then turn every one on and count

  • @globingoblin8625
    @globingoblin8625 2 ปีที่แล้ว +653

    The giant waking up after a nightmare and seeing the candles on his cake turn themselves on and off 👁️👄👁️

  • @sarahcunha7607
    @sarahcunha7607 2 ปีที่แล้ว +1945

    plot twist: The giant baker guessed the giant's age and didn't put the right amount of candles on the cake

    • @HopeRock425
      @HopeRock425 2 ปีที่แล้ว +57

      Well, at least it's consistent with the baker, because having 12 as the number and the amount of candles is better than having 30 as the number (whether or not it's right) and 12 as the candles.

    • @pinecone2214
      @pinecone2214 2 ปีที่แล้ว +16

      @@HopeRock425 the giant isn't simply gonna eat another giant. However they will maybe eat a tiny little ant sized thing with ease.

    • @HopeRock425
      @HopeRock425 2 ปีที่แล้ว +6

      @@pinecone2214 I was talking about the cake?

    • @redluna8865
      @redluna8865 2 ปีที่แล้ว +15

      @@HopeRock425 i assume what he meant was:
      If both the Baker & the main hero made mistake in the Giant’s age, he won’t eat the Baker because the Baker is also a giant. But the main hero can be easily put at fault
      & the comment was replying to Sarah’s

    • @hairje1340
      @hairje1340 2 ปีที่แล้ว +8

      @@redluna8865 the baker is not a giant hes only a bit taller then the character you can see this at 0:43

  • @Jgaldragon
    @Jgaldragon 2 ปีที่แล้ว +283

    You could also ask the giant or any tall guest to lift you up to get a better view of the candles. You can tell them you wanted to see how big of a centerpiece you could make with the space available.

    • @fairy_queen85
      @fairy_queen85 ปีที่แล้ว +35

      Hey, that's bloody genius!

  • @kaylenvee8150
    @kaylenvee8150 11 หลายเดือนก่อน +93

    Can you imagine if the giant woke up in the middle of the night just to see the candles flickering on and off on their own? You'd never have to worry for time because he wouldn't want to eat that cake anymore.

  • @jaromtoy9163
    @jaromtoy9163 2 ปีที่แล้ว +3978

    I’m a little confused - what’s preventing us from walking around the cake, turning off all the candles until we go for a while without lit candles (supposing he’s timeless and we have no way of being sure of his age), then lighting one and counting the candles all the way around until you get back to the start?
    Aka, turn all the candles off then count them starting from one candle that you turn on?

    • @watermelon.4214
      @watermelon.4214 2 ปีที่แล้ว +853

      That's exactly what I thought-

    • @0mr_x055
      @0mr_x055 2 ปีที่แล้ว +814

      Because you will never know if those 100 or so unlit candles you passed are off because you turned them off or if it's just a very long phase of randomly unlit candles.

    • @thatnike2604
      @thatnike2604 2 ปีที่แล้ว +640

      That's what I thought at first. But when you have no idea how many candles there are, you can't ever be sure that all candles are off. So after you light one up, you could stumble into another lit candle and get the wrong number

    • @watermelon.4214
      @watermelon.4214 2 ปีที่แล้ว +86

      @@thatnike2604 That makes sense. Thanks!

    • @unihorn458
      @unihorn458 2 ปีที่แล้ว +279

      You walk around turning off any lit candles.
      If it has been 200 candles since the last lit candle, it means they are all turned off.
      Turn the one you're at on, and walk around until you reach the same one again, counting the candles as you go, and get the right answer.

  • @joaobello7179
    @joaobello7179 2 ปีที่แล้ว +1788

    I love when they pause the riddle to show you the rules, rule number 5 says not to take your clothes off, because is unsanitary and basically tells everyone off because that would probably be an option 😂😂😂

    • @AlphaPizzadog
      @AlphaPizzadog 2 ปีที่แล้ว +51

      Bring an extra set of clothes and put them in the cake as markers

    • @avic6069
      @avic6069 2 ปีที่แล้ว +22

      @@AlphaPizzadog but you have nothing with you

    • @vloggerbonakid6178
      @vloggerbonakid6178 2 ปีที่แล้ว +46

      @@avic6069 And that's kind of unsanitary for a giant's birthday cake...

    • @cozyflurry
      @cozyflurry 2 ปีที่แล้ว +10

      Yea well im not sure the demon of reason will be so kind to follow that one

    • @OmikronTitan
      @OmikronTitan 2 ปีที่แล้ว +16

      ....then the Giant proceeds to blow all over the cake rendering the cake just as unsanitary... if the Giant is sharing of course.

  • @jeconiahjoelmichaelsiregar7917
    @jeconiahjoelmichaelsiregar7917 2 ปีที่แล้ว +590

    I like how at 4:26 there's objects from other riddles getting blown away with us like the elemental crystals (Fire Crystal riddle), the fabergé egg (Egg Drop riddle), and the gold and silver Tri-source hexagons as well as the gems (Dongle's Difficult Dilemma)

    • @teckyuanwang6861
      @teckyuanwang6861 2 ปีที่แล้ว +27

      The riddleverse of TED

    • @note5819
      @note5819 2 ปีที่แล้ว +21

      It's slowly becoming its own cinematic universe, and I absolutely love it. The Fabergé eggs (with exact same designs) have made quite a few cameos in other riddles too!

    • @thegamergirl6164
      @thegamergirl6164 2 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      also th earth crystal!

    • @kingwolf3044
      @kingwolf3044 ปีที่แล้ว +3

      I guess I wasn’t the first to notice that. And I thought I named it the riddleverse. Great minds think alike I suppose.

    • @DeathnoteBB
      @DeathnoteBB 7 หลายเดือนก่อน

      @@note5819I think they had a cameo in the Fire Crystal riddle! They were on top of the containments

  • @INTstincts
    @INTstincts 2 ปีที่แล้ว +69

    Alternate solution which feels like cheating, but is never called out as being illegal by the rules:
    Walk around and turn every candle you see off. After some time, exit the cake and see if the room is dark. If not, enter the cake again and keep turning off candles, checking again periodically. If it is, you have turned off every candle, and can re-enter the cake and turn one candle on, then walk the loop until you reach your lit candle.
    This gives you a definite state you can check for without having to backtrack or make too many additional loops

    • @JJisjusttiredoflife
      @JJisjusttiredoflife 7 หลายเดือนก่อน +2

      Genius 💯

    • @feliksporeba5851
      @feliksporeba5851 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

      ​@@tamirasekhar16 No. You could never be sure you turned all the candles off this way

    • @kiko_akabane8820
      @kiko_akabane8820 หลายเดือนก่อน

      @@feliksporeba5851 Yea u can. Its a dark room i think u would spot a lit candle

  • @TakeruTakashi
    @TakeruTakashi 2 ปีที่แล้ว +1419

    I think that the morale is clear enough: dont make chocolate ornaments for someone who could eat you for not remembering its age

  • @theothers2744
    @theothers2744 2 ปีที่แล้ว +1282

    Oh, just ask the baker how many candles did he put. If you're afraid of being found out that you didn't remember the age, ask a tricky question to let him spill how many candles are there (or the age).

    • @madlad255
      @madlad255 2 ปีที่แล้ว +118

      True, I was thinking the same. Saying something like 'Wow, they grow up fast, don't they?' and then subtly pushing the baker to spill the age, should be enough, I think.

    • @MrEel-dc4kh
      @MrEel-dc4kh 2 ปีที่แล้ว +230

      Tell the baker that you have green eyes and he will tell you the giant's age.

    • @daforkgaming3320
      @daforkgaming3320 2 ปีที่แล้ว +107

      Or have an excuse. Ask him how many candles did he put because you want to make sure he didn’t forget the giants age.

    • @CTBOYSTB4L
      @CTBOYSTB4L 2 ปีที่แล้ว +5

      @@daforkgaming3320 easy W

    • @gregheffley5745
      @gregheffley5745 2 ปีที่แล้ว +3

      @@MrEel-dc4kh Nate, that joke is stale.

  • @terabyte3275
    @terabyte3275 ปีที่แล้ว +399

    My idea was turning off all candles and checking periodically outside if any candles are casting light. Then going one direction and counting while turning them all on. The first one I see on means I've made a loop

    • @acherem13
      @acherem13 ปีที่แล้ว +23

      Much easier and effective.

    • @Klick404
      @Klick404 ปีที่แล้ว +4

      Wouldn't that take a really long time?

    • @Zunree1869
      @Zunree1869 ปีที่แล้ว +7

      Bruh same XD, just turn them off then on again.

    • @demonflamerslayer252
      @demonflamerslayer252 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      That's exactly what i thought

    • @hyperfiz0980
      @hyperfiz0980 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      That's what I thought

  • @lilmarionscorner
    @lilmarionscorner 2 ปีที่แล้ว +30

    1:25 Rule 5 reads: "You are carrying nothing with you, and any marks you make will dissapear. No removing your clothing either. That's unsanitary. This is food, people."

    • @rinabegum-xh3wq
      @rinabegum-xh3wq 4 หลายเดือนก่อน

      Oh my goodness they new nobody reads that stuff

  • @clayel1
    @clayel1 2 ปีที่แล้ว +521

    Rule 5. “…No removing your clothing either. That’s unsanitary. This is food, people.” damn, they knew what we were gonna think of

    • @EmilyRose-op1gd
      @EmilyRose-op1gd 2 ปีที่แล้ว +9

      it's actually rule 5, but is still very funny.

    • @nikhilsharma-jx7zw
      @nikhilsharma-jx7zw 2 ปีที่แล้ว +5

      They also knew that if we know the length of the loop we could just count our steps so we know we are at the start again

    • @noodleexpanding3407
      @noodleexpanding3407 2 ปีที่แล้ว +22

      Gotta prioritize hygiene over your own life

    • @cipher3966
      @cipher3966 2 ปีที่แล้ว +9

      He kept clothes on and walked all through it. I don't know if shoes on or off are less sanitary

    • @adarshmohapatra5058
      @adarshmohapatra5058 2 ปีที่แล้ว +27

      Bruh, now that I think about it, the clothing solution should work. As long as you pick up your clothes after removing them & completing a loop.
      And Ted-Ed shouldn't talk about how unsanitary it is. The giant was gonna eat the cake with me in it if I took too long XD

  • @dinohall2595
    @dinohall2595 2 ปีที่แล้ว +201

    1:26 "No removing your clothing either. That's unsanitary. This is food, people."
    Best criterion for a riddle ever.

  • @mcipher5086
    @mcipher5086 2 ปีที่แล้ว +188

    Easier solution: You can’t leave marks on the cake but you can leave marks on the candle, grab a piece of cake and draw with it a distinct letter or symbol on the surface of the candle, now just count the candles and no matter their state, you’ll always arrive to your marked candle, thus doing only one loop.

    • @gregheffley5745
      @gregheffley5745 2 ปีที่แล้ว +16

      That's perfect!

    • @anshumanagrawal346
      @anshumanagrawal346 2 ปีที่แล้ว +38

      The riddle assumes you can't make any marks or know in any way if you've been at some place before except by the state of the candles, realistically there's obviously lots of ways to make small marks

    • @isalima5101
      @isalima5101 ปีที่แล้ว

      🎂👄🎂🎊🎊👏🏼👏🏼😃😀😚🙏😍

    • @thepoobandit2850
      @thepoobandit2850 ปีที่แล้ว

      @@surgeling2 it’s not a real cake bud it’s a riddle

    • @deleted-something
      @deleted-something ปีที่แล้ว

      Ye

  • @ChaunceyBeggs
    @ChaunceyBeggs 2 ปีที่แล้ว +92

    Wouldn't it be more efficient to use prime numbers for your initial guesses? That way you don't need to worry about factors as possibilities. Also, by turning on all candles from the beginning, you can quickly determine if the actual amount is less than your guess (you run into an unlit candle earlier than expected while backtracking) or greater.

  • @echojr.801
    @echojr.801 2 ปีที่แล้ว +249

    Solving one of these Ted-Ed riddles on my own is on my bucket list

    • @EnriqueLaberintico
      @EnriqueLaberintico 2 ปีที่แล้ว +2

      I've done five of them, but that's less than 1/13 anyways.

    • @dannyluo2077
      @dannyluo2077 2 ปีที่แล้ว

      I sometimes solved some riddles by myself.

    • @andrewsteifer520
      @andrewsteifer520 2 ปีที่แล้ว +7

      Should you count solving one if your solution is logical, reasonable, and works, but isn't THEIR solution??

    • @dannyluo2077
      @dannyluo2077 2 ปีที่แล้ว +3

      @@andrewsteifer520 I’d say yes.

  • @shinyagumon7015
    @shinyagumon7015 2 ปีที่แล้ว +425

    That's the second time that a TedEd riddle contained the threat of being eaten by a Giant. I think the only thing we're learning here is too be distrustful of Giants.
    Also the bigger question is how can the Giant blow out electric candles?

    • @ScorpionClaws789
      @ScorpionClaws789 2 ปีที่แล้ว +47

      The lighting mechanism could just be setting a spark to make the candle burn

    • @parikshitbende6168
      @parikshitbende6168 2 ปีที่แล้ว +6

      That is a big twist

    • @TahmidurRahman365
      @TahmidurRahman365 2 ปีที่แล้ว +9

      it's a giant they blow out and up everything

    • @Inkyminkyzizwoz
      @Inkyminkyzizwoz 2 ปีที่แล้ว +2

      *to be

    • @archivushka
      @archivushka 2 ปีที่แล้ว +16

      I I had a quarter for any time TedEd riddle contained the threat of being eaten by a Giant I would have only 2 quarters
      That's not a lot
      But it's strange that it happened twice

  • @rabukaxen9595
    @rabukaxen9595 2 ปีที่แล้ว +20

    I love how when it shows the rules, for rule #5 it says "You're carrying nothing with you, and any marks you try to leave will disappear. No removing your clothing either. Thats unsanitary. This is food, people."
    *They actually had to do that to stop the trolls* 🤣

  • @OliverTheAmpersandCat
    @OliverTheAmpersandCat 2 ปีที่แล้ว +93

    Assuming that this cake is a perfect (or near-perfect) circle, and the candles are spaced evenly, you could measure the angle of one candle to another, and calculate how many more candles you would need to finish the circle.
    Or, in a like fashion, (again, assuming that the candles are spaced at equal intervals) you could measure the distance between each candle, and that would tell you how many candles you would need to complete the circle.

    • @nyanSynxPHOENIX
      @nyanSynxPHOENIX 2 ปีที่แล้ว +6

      I thought of that too. Before even beginning to count the candles, you could make a pretty decent estimated guess at how many candles would fit around the cake at equal intervals. Obviously we have seen the cake from the outside, so it should be easy enough to make a guess between 10 and 2000, lmao. Actually measuring out the angle though would be pretty hard since you don't have any tools with you.

    • @OliverTheAmpersandCat
      @OliverTheAmpersandCat 2 ปีที่แล้ว +3

      @@Austriaco-wc2sv I don’t go anywhere without my art-bag. My art bag has multiple rulers and protractors that I would be set.

  • @amateraceon5202
    @amateraceon5202 2 ปีที่แล้ว +59

    My favorite about this is the stipulation saying, “No remove your clothing, either. That’s unsanitary. This is food, people.”

  • @egal1780
    @egal1780 2 ปีที่แล้ว +9

    0:25 what a nice friend...

  • @the_superdiscogirl
    @the_superdiscogirl 2 ปีที่แล้ว +19

    I love these riddles! More please? They are so challenging and fun!

  • @JioLLLL
    @JioLLLL 2 ปีที่แล้ว +16

    Oh my goodness! What a coincidence (or maybe it was intentional)! I'm binging these videos and I saw this comment from 3 years ago: "Why are all these riddles always set in deadly gruesome situations. Give me a riddle about serving cake to children at a birthday party for once." -saakmalo
    You really came through for her 😂 I hope she sees this video!

    • @cindyyeo6161
      @cindyyeo6161 ปีที่แล้ว +3

      still a deadly situation, the giant could eat you for not knowing his age 😂😂

  • @wilburn5881
    @wilburn5881 2 ปีที่แล้ว +184

    I've seen a lot of people suggesting turning off all the candles and then counting them by switching them on, with the problem being that you can never know you've turned them all off, as the giant could be even 1000 years old. However in a realistic scenario this ~ *would* ~ work; if we have seen the cake, and it's not too big, we won't have to walk for miles to know that we've switched off all candles after a certain amount of time (same if it's bigger, calculate roughly the time you will walk depending on the size). The thing with this riddle is that for some reason you are not allowed to know any clue based on size and proportions of the very observable cake that you can clearly see.

    • @FrostedCreations
      @FrostedCreations 2 ปีที่แล้ว +11

      There's a giant, you can't go off of intuition. There's nothing saying it's not a magical cake that seems smaller than it actually is.

    • @wilburn5881
      @wilburn5881 2 ปีที่แล้ว +11

      @@FrostedCreations There's nothing saying it is either. You don't go solving problems based on what's not said, but on what has been said.

    • @adumba3709
      @adumba3709 2 ปีที่แล้ว +10

      @@hermannbarbato The rules only state that his age is at least 2, they only said "between 2 and 200" in the beginning for dramatic effect , which is honestly kinda misleading, hence why a lot of people in the comments assume that he's 200 years old at most

    • @dimlighty
      @dimlighty 2 ปีที่แล้ว +4

      Can't you do it this way?
      1. Keep turning all candles off as you pass.
      2. There will be once at least that you complete the loop and find all the candles on your way forward off.
      3. You go for checking many other candles ahead, say 1000, to make sure that all are turned off. If you find all 1000 candles turned off, that means you've probably turned off all candles in the tunnel. Even if the giant's age is 10000 or something, we know that it can't be that 1000 candles in a row would be off as it's very less of a probability for candles lit on and off in a random fashion to be this way.
      4. Choose any candle and light it on, keep counting till you reach the lit up candle and you've done counting it.

    • @jaromtoy9163
      @jaromtoy9163 2 ปีที่แล้ว +9

      It’s a misleading riddle. I didn’t rationally think of any way other than this, and the answer seems to support the notion that there was an implied age range. A bit frustrating, but TedEd’s riddles tend to be more of math and logic puzzles, so I guess I can’t complain for getting what I get.

  • @tylerwinterton7535
    @tylerwinterton7535 2 ปีที่แล้ว +73

    I'm so happy this actually landed directly on my birthday.

  • @ryokuroovlogs
    @ryokuroovlogs ปีที่แล้ว +51

    what if u just walk around and turn on all the candles until everyth is lit, then turn off all the candles while counting them until all are off, then u'll know his age so easily lol

    • @francoisdross5557
      @francoisdross5557 ปีที่แล้ว +4

      and how do you know when all of the candles are lit ?

    • @cleu7851
      @cleu7851 ปีที่แล้ว +2

      @@francoisdross5557 count the candles you see until you're at 200

    • @francoisdross5557
      @francoisdross5557 ปีที่แล้ว +6

      @@cleu7851 but what about if he is older than 200 ? he's a giant after all, maybe they can live very old. The very point of this riddle is to devise a way to know when you can stop counting. They say 200 in the video, but it can be any number (at least 2, since they specify it, you do not know how high it can get).

    • @mimivuong1543
      @mimivuong1543 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      @@francoisdross5557 Until you see that every candle is lit ig?

    • @ranran_dv
      @ranran_dv ปีที่แล้ว

      thats what I was thinking of lol

  • @stankorzilius
    @stankorzilius ปีที่แล้ว +3

    Nice riddle, with an elegant optimization to the "try every distance"-method. I had a different optimization which I believe will work well in many cases too.
    First, turn on your reference candle. Then, go into one direction to the first lit candle and turn it off (let's say this is the n'th candle). Go back the same number of n candles and check the reference candle. If it's off, you have the solution. If it's still on, don't go into the same direction to check the next lit candle. Instead, go into the other direction to:
    - the first lit candle;
    - at least (n+1) candles away;
    - with at least n unlit candles before it.
    On the way, you turn off all candles you pass. Once you've found this candle (let's say it's the m'th candle), turn it off and trace back the same number of m candles again. If it's off, you have the solution. If not, you go into the first direction again. However, because you turned off the n'th candle in the first direction earlier and only just turned of the m'th candle in the second direction, these can't be the same candles. Therefore, you'll look for the first lit candle, at least (n+m+1) candles away, with at least m unlit candles before it. This process repeats until you hit the reference candle.
    The avantage of going into two directions is that the candles that were previously furthest away are suddenly very close. And by turning off the candles on your way you quickly increase the number of unlit candles surrounding the reference candle. This will make it easier to identify it because you can dismiss many other lit candles which you would normally check too.
    The solution given in the video is certainly less complex, but my approach is very efficient (too). In the example case of 99 candles, I computed that in the worst-case scenario, you only need to visit 464 candles (instead of the 559 candles in the video).

  • @samwhite4284
    @samwhite4284 2 ปีที่แล้ว +7

    I love how comically tenuous the set-ups for these riddles are. I’m really not complaining.

  • @DarkSorcerer
    @DarkSorcerer 2 ปีที่แล้ว +84

    This riddle has a creative solution, and I still can’t solve it

    • @Stratelier
      @Stratelier 2 ปีที่แล้ว +4

      That's because the solution is actually the _strategy_ you would use to confirm the giant's age, not the actual number itself.

  • @jackfakename4851
    @jackfakename4851 2 ปีที่แล้ว +54

    Step 1: go around the cake and turn every light off. Feel free to go around as much as you like.
    Step 2: when you feel like every light is off, turn one on.
    Step 3: go around one more time, and count every light.
    Step 4: when you get back to the light that’s on, you know you made one full rotation. This means that you counted all of the candles.

    • @gabrielg2395
      @gabrielg2395 2 ปีที่แล้ว +14

      This was my solution too.

    • @AaronFernandes__
      @AaronFernandes__ ปีที่แล้ว +7

      Exactly super easy, and effective

    • @Quackleb
      @Quackleb ปีที่แล้ว +6

      How do you 'feel' like every like light is off? Say the giant is 1000, if you go past 327 candles, turning each one off, and 'feel' that every light is off and turn one on, then when you continue, looking for a lit candle, you might find one only 200 candles later, at position 527. You would assume that is your starting candle and think that the giant was 200, then you'd die

    • @ianslater9566
      @ianslater9566 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      @@Quackleb you could turn the first candle on, and then keep going until you don’t find any more lit candles. Then backtrack the amount of candles you went, and if there are more candles then you saw, the candle will still be lit. After that, go even farther next time and repeat. Might take longer then the solution in the video, but still works

    • @NumbToons
      @NumbToons ปีที่แล้ว +3

      @@ianslater9566 You said "and then keep going until you don’t find any more lit candles".How would you know there are no more lit candles?

  • @blueface9051
    @blueface9051 ปีที่แล้ว +5

    A question that I have about this riddle, that I haven't seen anyone ask yet is, why are any of the candles already on in the first place? The whole point is to go in and turn them all on yourself by sunrise. There's no reason why the strategy of turning 1 candle on and going all the way around the cake until you're greeted with an already lit candle wouldn't work if this were the case. If there are potentially some already on by the time that you get there, it means the baker who placed the candles in the cake had turned some on randomly.

    • @Karhuma
      @Karhuma 3 หลายเดือนก่อน

      the whole point is to know the giants age

  • @Stellaiseditingandgetsnosleep
    @Stellaiseditingandgetsnosleep 2 ปีที่แล้ว +24

    Friend: "are you able to come to my birthday party?"
    Me: "No"
    *The End*

    • @tera_hz7125
      @tera_hz7125 ปีที่แล้ว

      Then you will be the dinner

    • @isalima5101
      @isalima5101 ปีที่แล้ว

      Jdnfhfkdorjdk
      Djdmuddmp
      Urmegej😍😚🎊😃🎂👏🏼🎁🎊🎈😀👄😁🎉🎂👏😁🎊😃🎉

  • @LARKXHIN
    @LARKXHIN 2 ปีที่แล้ว +19

    I thought this was going to be like an ancient riddle, but it just got more surreal as it went on.

  • @sy-ep6dv
    @sy-ep6dv 2 ปีที่แล้ว +2

    How amusing... This got recommended to me today, today is my birthday.

  • @alexandradelliou
    @alexandradelliou 2 ปีที่แล้ว

    This was literally uploaded on my birthday!
    Thank you, Ted-Ed!

  • @schuhsuppe7228
    @schuhsuppe7228 2 ปีที่แล้ว +66

    As a person who has to deal with memory loss issues this was a very easy riddle i must say :)

  • @oferzilberman5049
    @oferzilberman5049 2 ปีที่แล้ว +41

    When he said that you can see if the candles are on or off, my mind IMMEDIATELY jumped back to that numberphile video about the Busy Beaver function. It's honestly amazing
    I think you could just run a trip, turn off all the candles, then turn on a candle every certain number of candles, starting with one. It might work a bit faster.

    • @benjaminlee985
      @benjaminlee985 ปีที่แล้ว +9

      How do you know when you've turned off all the candles, though? Even if you walk past 20 unlit candles, maybe the 21st is still lit.

  • @totalme302
    @totalme302 2 ปีที่แล้ว +6

    I love how Ted ed has to exclusively tell us about some basic manners.

  • @Hammie72
    @Hammie72 4 หลายเดือนก่อน +4

    why don't you just take off the stealth suit and use that as a marker?

  • @twilightbts7058
    @twilightbts7058 2 ปีที่แล้ว +168

    The intro and the animation are inevitable and never cease to draw my attention towards the video! I love it !

    • @ihavenodogs
      @ihavenodogs 2 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      I can’t help but agree

  • @bivcbmtgstgtssscqcrddgtrsm2257
    @bivcbmtgstgtssscqcrddgtrsm2257 2 ปีที่แล้ว +290

    That wasn't a particularly difficult riddle, but it definitely had an interesting solution.

    • @tanimation7289
      @tanimation7289 2 ปีที่แล้ว +6

      Still as long as it made you think the riddle is a good one.

    • @bivcbmtgstgtssscqcrddgtrsm2257
      @bivcbmtgstgtssscqcrddgtrsm2257 2 ปีที่แล้ว +2

      @@tanimation7289 It most certainly did.

    • @danielyuan9862
      @danielyuan9862 2 ปีที่แล้ว +13

      It was a good riddle, just poorly explained. It never said anything about efficiency in the problem, and yet that was the core of the puzzle.

    • @bivcbmtgstgtssscqcrddgtrsm2257
      @bivcbmtgstgtssscqcrddgtrsm2257 2 ปีที่แล้ว

      @@danielyuan9862 So?

    • @lucasdasilva23
      @lucasdasilva23 2 ปีที่แล้ว +10

      @@danielyuan9862 Any computer scientist would naturally think about the efficiency of his algorithms.
      I think just solving the riddle is already a good thing. Going beyond and asking questions like "is there a better way" is great.

  • @PeppinoPizzaMozzarella
    @PeppinoPizzaMozzarella 2 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    wow this is the first riddle i ever solved, thanks for making riddles keep it up

  • @respectableaf9061
    @respectableaf9061 2 ปีที่แล้ว +2

    And me using logic: Just call the baker. He would know how many candles he put on the cake.

  • @megandempsey6814
    @megandempsey6814 2 ปีที่แล้ว +18

    I love the fact that this was published the day before my birthday 😂

    • @mi-co1ov
      @mi-co1ov 2 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      Me too. 😌 But it feels kinda weird in a good way

    • @DircyaT.Rubino
      @DircyaT.Rubino 2 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      Happy Early Birthday!

    • @megandempsey6814
      @megandempsey6814 2 ปีที่แล้ว

      @@DircyaT.Rubino thank you!

  • @AKS-zl6be
    @AKS-zl6be 2 ปีที่แล้ว +33

    "How old would you be if you didn't know how old you are?"
    I will check my adoption files instead of thinking about it. 🙂

  • @emmanuelukwandu
    @emmanuelukwandu 2 ปีที่แล้ว

    It's amazing that this is the first riddle I actually manage to get right other than guess.

  • @mr.e..
    @mr.e.. 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

    Before getting in the cake, walk around the outside of the cake once while counting your steps. Then climb inside and walk the same number of steps, making sure every candle is off as you go. You will have done more than one loop as the tunnel is shorter than walking around the outside. Turn on one candle and walk around one more loop counting candles until you reach the one that is on.

  • @kavya.mishra
    @kavya.mishra 2 ปีที่แล้ว +39

    What about the entrance of the tunnel? We can just go around the cake from outside and check how many entrances the tunnel has and then go in and count the candles using them

    • @minhquannguyen6192
      @minhquannguyen6192 2 ปีที่แล้ว +8

      I guess you just "dive in" and the hole will just close itself, just like how no mark is left behind when you try to note something on the inner wall of the cake...

    • @DeathnoteBB
      @DeathnoteBB 7 หลายเดือนก่อน

      Presumably there’s a single entrance, if you could just count the candles it wouldn’t be an issue

  • @pinecone2214
    @pinecone2214 2 ปีที่แล้ว +52

    I think I may have a more efficient solution. What if you were to keep traveling until you see a pattern repeat twice, assuming the pattern length is at least 2, then swap the last candle and go back and see if the last candle in the first itteration changed. If you don't see the new change, now travel forward and do the same again assuming the new pattern length's minimum is that of the total length you've seen so far. Assuming you aren't extremely unlucky with coincidental repeating patterns, then you will only travel to 2x the age, then travel back to a total of 3x+1 of the age. If there are repeating patterns, the minimum length will at least double each time, so it shouldn't take too long, and assuming the candles are completely randomly lit or unlit, the chance of the whole length being just all 1s or all 0s or a similarly highly repeating pattern is low, so you won't be back tracking much.
    Of course, this requires having a good memory or bringing something to write on or something, because it is more complex, and that might be invalid idk.

    • @Stratelier
      @Stratelier 2 ปีที่แล้ว +4

      Say you brought a notebook with you and you can use it to take notes -- but you have to take it with you because if you leave it behind you will never find it again.

    • @angelerror4086
      @angelerror4086 2 ปีที่แล้ว +2

      I think most people would actually go for ted ed solution lol, this requires considerable amount of brain power, and the videos' solution mostly only contained counting

    • @ShortFilmVD
      @ShortFilmVD 2 ปีที่แล้ว

      I suspect this is a more optimal solution for large number of candles 🕯 a similar approach would be to start at a lit candle, turn off all candles as you pass them (bar the first one) walking in one direction unti you reach a lit candle followed by a sufficient run of unlit candles. Then toggle the last lit candle and walk back to the start and assert the first candle is off. If it's not, it wasn't the first candle.
      The greater the run of unlit candles chosen as the threshold for turning around the more likely you're at the start. Again, if the candle runs get very large this could become slow so maybe consider increasing the threshold complexity at every failed attempt

    • @scottclowe
      @scottclowe 2 ปีที่แล้ว +2

      This is the best solution. The baker has seemingly designed the cake to have some kind of pretty design of lit and unlit candles, and this solution doesn't ruin their design by lighting or extinguishing all the candles while you count them! If you go round turning all the candles on, how are you going to remember the original configuration to reset the cake?

    • @scottclowe
      @scottclowe 2 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      Actually, this solution is very efficient if the candle configuration has high entropy. If it is ordered (e.g. on/off/on/off...) or incredibly sparse (e.g. off/off/off/off/off x1000) then you'll be doubling back on yourself to check very often, in the worst case every other candle.

  • @mikab.4838
    @mikab.4838 2 ปีที่แล้ว +3

    I love Ted Ed riddles! And I actually tried solving this new one because I watched all the other ones without trying to solve them. My answer was to start at one candle, then go back and forth counting one candle to your right, then one candle to your left, then counting the one to the right of the candle on your right, then counting the candle to the left of the first left candle and so on. okay this is confusing to explain.. Maybe that's why it wasn't an answer mentioned

  • @tiatrips
    @tiatrips 2 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    I was just going to suggest starting at a given candle, turn or leave it on, then continue around turning every candle off until you get to the starting candle. When you get to that candle, go one more candle forward, which would be off, then backtrack to the previous candle and turn it on. You circle would be established, then make another loop to count the candles.

    • @josephcprioli9254
      @josephcprioli9254 2 ปีที่แล้ว

      I think you're close, I would say to turn them all on. Then you can turn them off in the loop making 3 laps maybe 4.
      TLDR make all candles on then turn them off while you count

    • @tiatrips
      @tiatrips 2 ปีที่แล้ว

      @@josephcprioli9254 That would be an option to. I was just looking for the least amount of work.

  • @heysamesam
    @heysamesam 2 ปีที่แล้ว +3

    I've been watching these riddles for five years and this is the first riddle I solve!

  • @daforkgaming3320
    @daforkgaming3320 2 ปีที่แล้ว +8

    I think another way to do this with the first method fast is to use multiple candles. Let’s say you keep 2 candles next to each other on, and you count all the candles until you find another 2 candles next to each other, you can turn those off and track back your steps and if they’re still off, that means you did it. This is like the first but it’s 2 candles. So for how many candles we saw are lit, there are probably be less times that 2 are lit in a row. You can also do this with 3-4 or maybe more candles to make it faster. You can only see one at a time but you can count the number of times you see a candle on/off

  • @kinra7
    @kinra7 2 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    i was thinking either ask the baker how many candles they put or simply do another decoration instead of the giant's age lol

  • @ChanwooPark-me1wc
    @ChanwooPark-me1wc ปีที่แล้ว +4

    이런 수수깨끼들을 다룬 영상들을 보면 저는 항상 해답에 놀라는 저를 발견하곤 합니다. 전혀 생각지 못했던 수학적 아이디어들을 사용해 풀리는 문제를 보는 것은 참 흥미진진합니다. 좋은 영상 감사합니다!

  • @dirantosdelgado4749
    @dirantosdelgado4749 2 ปีที่แล้ว +30

    My solution without having looked at the answer: Choose a random candle and turn it on (or it is already on). from there go to the next turned on candle and count the candles that lay on the way. This way you can trace back your first candle. Now turn off the candle and retrace the steps. If your original candle is also off, you know you went in a circle and know the number of candles because you counted along. Otherwise, repeat the steps i.e. go to the next candle that is turned on and so on...

    • @5idi
      @5idi 2 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      It's better than the proposed one

    • @notAD13
      @notAD13 2 ปีที่แล้ว +2

      Well, your method is quite unreliable. Suppose using your method, if we find out that there are 20 candles, then it can't be exactly the answer we need. It can also be that the actual number of candles is 2 and we are just turning the same two candles on and off thinking they're 20 different candles and we won't even know if we are doing so as we are in a loop. The number of candle can also be 4 or 5..and all the factors of 20(as mentioned in the video). If we find out that the number of candles is not a prime number, then there is a possibility that the factors of the number can also be the number of candles.

    • @dirantosdelgado4749
      @dirantosdelgado4749 2 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      @@notAD13 Let's assume that there are only 2 candles. You choose a random candle and turn it on. There are now two possibilities, either the next candle is on or off. If it is on, then you turn it off, go back to your selected candle and see that it is still on. If the next candle is off, then the next lit candle is your selected candle. You turn it off, go back (2) steps and see that now your selected candle is off and you know that there are only two candles. So why would you ever get to 20? You know the answer as soon as your selected candle is off.
      Btw my method is the first method from the video ;)

    • @notAD13
      @notAD13 2 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      @@dirantosdelgado4749 Well see the video. They say exactly the same thing I said after they showed your method of solving the riddle.

    • @notAD13
      @notAD13 2 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      @@dirantosdelgado4749 And also I never got to 20. I never started off with 2. I just assumed that using your method, we found out there are 20 candles. And here comes more possibilties. There is a possibilty that we just turned on or whatsoever only 2 candles assuming we turned on 20 candles and we won't know this because we are in a loop. The candles are randomly turned off and on so we never know if they ARE or ARE not following the same pattern and i know the probability is less but it's still there. So, we can never assume that there are only two candles. And not only two,there is also possibilty that the candles can be 4 or 5 or 10...(factors of 20).
      Yes we may be able to find out the number of candles using your method if the number of candles are somewhat lesser but if it is more around even 20,30...it would be impossible because time is limited. We only have time till sun rise.

  • @blakechow8294
    @blakechow8294 2 ปีที่แล้ว +8

    I love the new trend of adding Easter eggs from the old riddles to the new riddles like the eggs from the heist riddle, gems from the auction riddle and the crystals from the elements riddle are at 4:26

  • @antarctica0938
    @antarctica0938 2 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    Notice the items when being blown downwind at the end. There’s a reference to the Egg Drop Puzzle (2 Fabrege Eggs)

  • @OliverTheAmpersandCat
    @OliverTheAmpersandCat 2 ปีที่แล้ว +3

    My solution:
    Flick every other candle so that it becomes on, and the other ones off. Once you have gone around the cake, you will know by the pattern (you could make a more complicated pattern if you want.)
    Then, once you know that you have made a full loop, count the candles in one direction, flicking them all to the OFF state, as you do so.

  • @hourofberries
    @hourofberries 2 ปีที่แล้ว +6

    And then you get eaten, because as it turns out, the giant is turning 120. They just couldn’t fit that many candles on the cake.

    • @gregheffley5745
      @gregheffley5745 2 ปีที่แล้ว

      But it says the giant is your FRIEND. Why would he want to eat you?

    • @hourofberries
      @hourofberries 2 ปีที่แล้ว

      @@gregheffley5745 i’d eat my friends if it was socially acceptable and they forgot my birthday

    • @gregheffley5745
      @gregheffley5745 2 ปีที่แล้ว

      @@hourofberries But when is it "socially acceptable" to eat your friends?

    • @hourofberries
      @hourofberries 2 ปีที่แล้ว

      @@gregheffley5745 in a world where I’m a giant apparently

    • @gregheffley5745
      @gregheffley5745 2 ปีที่แล้ว

      @@hourofberries But still, the giant probably understands your forgetfulness.

  • @drmujtabashaikh8
    @drmujtabashaikh8 2 ปีที่แล้ว +71

    We can all agree that Ted Ed never fails to entertain us

  • @Noukz37
    @Noukz37 2 ปีที่แล้ว

    This the first TEDed riddle that I actually wasn't lost in, and that my solution was correct! Yay!!! 😀

  • @Xavier-pt4mp
    @Xavier-pt4mp 2 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    Here's my solution(not sure if it's correct, correct me if im wrong, thanks)
    Unlit any lit candles and count as you go. After all the candles are unlit(let's put an example, 50.), you want to lit 50 candles in a row, and start counting the remaining unlit candles until you reach a lit candle(say, this is 30), you'll get 30+50=80 as your answer.

  • @zedricktecson9331
    @zedricktecson9331 2 ปีที่แล้ว +6

    I would just ask one of the party goers to save myself the hassle 😂😂😂

  • @SoaringFlame
    @SoaringFlame 2 ปีที่แล้ว +4

    Great video as always!

  • @ghazalalweish6388
    @ghazalalweish6388 2 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    I love those riddles! 🥰🥰

  • @muditmehta5685
    @muditmehta5685 2 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    Another way is to mark a candle on, and then by walking turn every candle off or keeping it off and count it on the way. When you reach the one that is on, you stop and you know how many candles there are

  • @insumanth
    @insumanth 2 ปีที่แล้ว +7

    Walk first time and off all candles. You can take a second round to make sure everything is off. On one candle and count till you reach it. With just 3 round, you can count the age

    • @StarryNightGazing
      @StarryNightGazing 2 ปีที่แล้ว +3

      you have no way of knowing you went round a complete loop.

    • @vertyisprobablydead
      @vertyisprobablydead 2 ปีที่แล้ว

      Why would random candles be off or on? Either they're all off or all on.

    • @alyssiataylor546
      @alyssiataylor546 2 ปีที่แล้ว

      @@vertyisprobablydead It says that in the video

    • @dimlighty
      @dimlighty 2 ปีที่แล้ว

      @@StarryNightGazing Can't you do it this way?
      1. Keep turning all candles off as you pass.
      2. There will be once at least that you complete the loop and find all the candles on your way forward off.
      3. You go for checking many other candles ahead, say 100, to make sure that all are turned off. If you find all 100 candles turned off, that means you've probably turned off all candles in the tunnel. Even if the giant's age is 1000 or something, we know that it can't be that 100 candles in a row would be off as it's very less of a probability for candles lit on and off in a random fashion to be this way.
      4. Choose any candle and light it on, keep counting till you reach the lit up candle and you've done counting it.

    • @StarryNightGazing
      @StarryNightGazing 2 ปีที่แล้ว +2

      @@dimlighty you said it yourself: *probably*. The 100 candles turned off in a row could simply be random for all you know. You have no way of being 100% sure with your method, but the question is to actually be sure. If you don't backtrack, it's mathematically impossible.

  • @alex_zetsu
    @alex_zetsu 2 ปีที่แล้ว +3

    2:08 Wait I still don't get it. Suppose the giant is 12 and candles 1, 3, and 7 are lit. Once I hit the first lit candle and backtrack, how do I know I didn't finish the loop?

  • @notzack6438
    @notzack6438 2 ปีที่แล้ว

    Lol the transition to talking about Brilliant is well.... brilliant

  • @WarChallenger
    @WarChallenger ปีที่แล้ว +1

    My guess as of 1:24, on the first (what you think is a) loop, turn literally all of them off. You know for fact that A few centuries is excessive, so it shouldn't be difficult to guess after you've walked for like 20 minutes around and around that you've hit every candle at least once. Then, turn three to fifteen in a row on when you're comfortable. Once you start counting, start with those three to fifteen, and just keep going. The likelihood that you hit another, identical set after that much walking is slim to none.

  • @randombozo2964
    @randombozo2964 2 ปีที่แล้ว +3

    I thought of this though, while I'm going round the cake, I make sure I turn one light on, and the next off, so no consecutive candles are off or on together, I take some time to take multiple rounds to make sure my loop is done, then I switch one candle on next to another lit one, and count my way from there and when I reach, I'll know his age.. the only con I found in this is it's time-consuming

  • @juliayue8463
    @juliayue8463 2 ปีที่แล้ว +5

    Okay first of all, it should be easy to tell when you've reached all candles by simply turning everything on. after a while you'll find that all candles you pass are beginning to become lit: a sign you've made a loop.
    Once you've reached a certain interval of candles (say, 100), and everything seems to be lit, turn off the candle you're at. Then you count BACKWARDS in the direction you CAME FROM until you reach a closed candle.
    If the closed candle is

    • @tuxedobob2
      @tuxedobob2 2 ปีที่แล้ว

      Except that the giant might be 500 years old and you just happened across a patch of 100 lit candles.

    • @juliayue8463
      @juliayue8463 2 ปีที่แล้ว

      @@tuxedobob2 if you read what I wrote, you would know that once you reach a closed candle, you'd shut off the one next to it and run back to see if there were two off. if there were, you've made a loop and now know that giant's age. if there weren't, you go back to where you stopped, turn them on, and continue once again.
      also, i said "100" as a hypothetical interval you wanted to test; you turn everything on until everything seems lit and that you can guarantee that there are at least 100 candles in a row that are lit. it's so that you won't waste your time running back and forth to check if there are two candles off. you close the candle you're at and begin counting BACKWARDS until you get to the next candle turned off. if you find that 5, or 10, or even 99 candles later you find one turned off, you KNOW the giant's age and can be CERTAIN because you MADE SURE that 100 candles in a row were turned off. If not, then you simply keep checking and rechecking without wasting time to see if you've reached the age.

  • @Ojja78
    @Ojja78 4 หลายเดือนก่อน

    Best (my) solution: start wherever you enter with a lit candle (light one if there isn't one already lit), turn off the next candle, then turn on the next two candles. Turn off the next candle and then turn on the next three. Continue all the way around until your pattern repeats. You will need to make a maximum of two circuits to ensure you have correctly identified your starting location and haven't run into a highly improbable pattern that mimics yours.

  • @blipblop21O8
    @blipblop21O8 ปีที่แล้ว

    you can just go around the whole way turning off any candle lights, then when u are all done turning the candles lights off, you count in ur head for every candle you light and since its a circle when u reach the first candle u light you’ll know youre done counting

  • @ethanhunt6725
    @ethanhunt6725 2 ปีที่แล้ว +6

    Oh ma God I love your animation ❤
    Theme is fantabulous as usual
    Kudos, entire team for incessantly entertaining us through your insightful & informative works
    Love ❤

  • @laughingatthesky7
    @laughingatthesky7 2 ปีที่แล้ว +4

    If I were them, I would just find an object taller than the cake to climb on top of and then count the candles while at the top

  • @adamblessing8528
    @adamblessing8528 2 ปีที่แล้ว

    The twist: all the TED riddle giants are incredibly kind and all of these workers just have horribly unrealistic anxiety.

  • @JonahWho
    @JonahWho ปีที่แล้ว

    i swear to god, i watch these once and it goes over my head, but then a few years later i go back and i'm like OHHHH I GET THE SOLUTION NOW

  • @evannuh-koo-la4054
    @evannuh-koo-la4054 2 ปีที่แล้ว +3

    When you watch Ted Ed riddles just for the storyline

  • @jessical4866
    @jessical4866 2 ปีที่แล้ว +3

    1:35 “There’s exactly one way to mark a location in the tunnel”
    If the tunnel is a completely closed loop, how did you get in there to begin with? You had to have entered externally somewhere.

    • @KingsleyIII
      @KingsleyIII 2 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      Yeah, and you could use your entry point as a way of telling if you've gone in a complete circle.

    • @RobjectionableContent
      @RobjectionableContent 2 ปีที่แล้ว

      He said that any marks you leave will disappear, which presumably includes your entry point. Wouldn't want the giant to think things have been crawling around in his cake taking bites out of it now would we.

  • @WhiteLeaker
    @WhiteLeaker ปีที่แล้ว

    My solution is, walk around the cake, know the radius, mark the plate for the starting point (or just remember landscape angle), walk around about once by turning everything off, get out, check if already passed a mark, if not, get back in from where you got out, and continue. after getting back to the starting point, just get back in and turn each back on while counting.

  • @glowstonelovepad9294
    @glowstonelovepad9294 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    Go through the tunnel, counting candles and turning them all off. Once you get to 200, turn it on, and count candles while going through the tunnel again. When you get to a lit candle, that's the age of the giant.

  • @adwanbwah2266
    @adwanbwah2266 2 ปีที่แล้ว +3

    Alternatively, you could face in only one direction to count the number of candles. First, start at one candle and line it up with the centre of the circular cake, then face in that specific direction so you are looking straight at the candle and the centre.
    Then, walk around the cake in the loop, switching all the candles you come across off in the process. As the candles are in a loop, when you return to the starting candle, you would be staring right at it. You won't miss the starting candle, it will be the one that starts a continuous line of unlit candles.
    Now, the only lit candle in the loop is your starting candle, and now you can count all the unlit candles until you reach the starting lit candle.

    • @brotherhoodofthebrow3899
      @brotherhoodofthebrow3899 2 ปีที่แล้ว

      That assumes you have a compass in your head to stay facing one direction. Odds are you would turn a little at one point or another and screw up.
      Obviously you don't have a compass in your hand, because that would violate the rule of not having anything to leave behind as a marker.

    • @adwanbwah2266
      @adwanbwah2266 2 ปีที่แล้ว

      @@brotherhoodofthebrow3899 true, you might accidentally deviate a little bit, but as long as you face in the approximate direction you should be good, as when you return to the approximate area the starting candle would be the one that starts a continuos line of unlit candles

    • @adwanbwah2266
      @adwanbwah2266 2 ปีที่แล้ว

      @@brotherhoodofthebrow3899 In addition, the chance that you deviate off the initial direction is quite low. Try walking around while facing in one direction, it's very difficult to go off course.

    • @brotherhoodofthebrow3899
      @brotherhoodofthebrow3899 2 ปีที่แล้ว

      @@adwanbwah2266 It's difficult to go off course over a small distance while you have constant visual references, such as a door. In a monotonous tunnel of unknown size? That's basically how JFK Jr died.
      Additionally, your method assumes not only the tunnel's shape, but that it has a shape rather than a form. Is the tunnel a circle? An ellipse? An irregular polygon? A series of x concentric rings where the innermost ring crosses over/under the others in order to connect to the outermost ring, such that you must travel 360 degrees x times?
      You might argue that you could then use the crossover/under to identify a starting point, but what if it happens multiple times? Then you've shifted from trying to figure out how to count the candles to trying to figure out how many times 3d movement comes into play.

    • @adwanbwah2266
      @adwanbwah2266 2 ปีที่แล้ว

      @@brotherhoodofthebrow3899 Firstly, you can hold the side of the cake to stabilise yourself, and also you can point your feet in the direction you're facing and correct yourself if you're slightly off course.
      Also, the video stated that the cake is in a loop, at 1:38 you can see the shape of the cake. It's arranged in a loop.

  • @DarkSorcerer
    @DarkSorcerer 2 ปีที่แล้ว +10

    No matter what the riddle is, Ted Ed always has a Math theme to it

  • @elbow7654
    @elbow7654 ปีที่แล้ว

    can someone explain why u can’t just turn them all off? intuition can be pretty powerful-once you feel certain that you’ve walked around at least two or three times (esp since it’s a circle) and don’t see any lights that are lit up at all, you should be able to start turning all the lights on, keeping track of how many you turn on. once you reach a light that is already on, you can record that final number, turn off that light, and continue to keep walking, counting once again to make sure that you end on a candle that is off (and that it is the same number you initially recorded)

  • @ScorpionClaws789
    @ScorpionClaws789 2 ปีที่แล้ว +5

    Faster solution - Turn the lights on and off in a pattern (2 on, 2 off), but make your starting point off from this pattern (3 on, 3 off). Count the candles as you go. Once you reach your break in the pattern, check the next set of candles. If they match the pattern, you counted them all. If not, it's a coincidence and you should keep going until you see another example of your starting setup

    • @StarryNightGazing
      @StarryNightGazing 2 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      how can you know it's not a coincidence anyway? to solve the problem, you definitely have to backtrack. otherwise, it's mathematically impossible.

  • @FrostglowASMR
    @FrostglowASMR 2 ปีที่แล้ว +5

    Wouldn't you know that you had made a full round when you were back at the entrance?

    • @StarryNightGazing
      @StarryNightGazing 2 ปีที่แล้ว

      no markings

    • @FrostglowASMR
      @FrostglowASMR 2 ปีที่แล้ว +3

      @@StarryNightGazing So the entrance disappears behind you and you will have to eat you way out when you're done? Otherwise you should be able to find the entrance again.

    • @noodleexpanding3407
      @noodleexpanding3407 2 ปีที่แล้ว +2

      This guy asks the real question

    • @FrostglowASMR
      @FrostglowASMR 2 ปีที่แล้ว +2

      @@noodleexpanding3407 Or: I'm not very smart and the only way I can solve these riddles is by breaking them ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

    • @RobjectionableContent
      @RobjectionableContent 2 ปีที่แล้ว

      @@FrostglowASMR "So the entrance disappears behind you and you will have to eat you way out when you're done?" Presumably, yeah. Fortunately the exit you make would also disappear, leaving no evidence of your midnight investigations except the candles' states being in a different pattern.

  • @medukameguca5071
    @medukameguca5071 6 หลายเดือนก่อน

    Me with every ted ed riddle: No, I can't solve it but this ain't stopping me from watching

  • @Sarah_860
    @Sarah_860 2 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    What I was thinking is that you go around and turn all the lights on then go around again to make sure, then turn off one. Go around count all the lights that are on, once you get to that last light that’s off you count it and you got your number! :)

  • @iamserious2464
    @iamserious2464 ปีที่แล้ว +3

    0:53 You could see him/she wearing boots. Then y didn't the person take off one of their boots🤷🏾

  • @caseygreyson4178
    @caseygreyson4178 2 ปีที่แล้ว +3

    My solution would be to light the first candle (or keep it on), and then turn off every single other candle I pass by. If I turn off the next candle and there is no more light, I will know that I’ve gone around completely.

    • @StarryNightGazing
      @StarryNightGazing 2 ปีที่แล้ว

      you have no way of knowing you've made it round a loop.

    • @caseygreyson4178
      @caseygreyson4178 2 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      @@StarryNightGazing yes, I do; when I turn off a candle and there is no more light, that tells me that that was the only lit candle-the first one that I turned on/kept on. Thus, I have completed a loop

    • @SpyrosKoronis
      @SpyrosKoronis 2 ปีที่แล้ว

      @@caseygreyson4178 "Anywhere in the tunnel, you can see whether the candle above you is lit". This implies you cannot see the state of any candles before or after the one you are next to.

    • @StarryNightGazing
      @StarryNightGazing 2 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      @@caseygreyson4178 you can't see other candles, it was clearly stated in the rules.

  • @cavaebi7890
    @cavaebi7890 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    Wait question. Why not just turn off every candle then 1 by 1 turn them on and count and when you reach a lit candle you stop counting. This is also reliable because you could loop multiple times to make sure you turned off every candle

  • @TheLemonyOne
    @TheLemonyOne ปีที่แล้ว +2

    it'd be more efficient to just go for a quick sprint turning every candle off, until you reach a string of X consecutive off candles. Then once you've reached 5 or 10 consecutive off candles you've probably gone at least one loop, so turn whatever candle you're up to on and start working back. If you make it back to a lit candle before walking back to your origin then you immediately have the correct age, only requiring you to walk 2L+10. The only way it'll fail is if there are more than 10 candles dead by coincidence, but then you can just increase the threshold of off candles before returning and try again