TED-Ed RIDDLES (2015 - 2018)

You’ve been chosen as a champion to represent your wizarding house in a deadly duel against two rival magic schools. Your opponents are a powerful sorcerer who wields a wand that can turn people into fish, and a powerful enchantress who wields a wand that turns people into statues. Can you choose a wand and devise a strategy that ensures you will win the duel? Dan Finkel shows how.

As a wildfire rages through the grasslands, three lions and three wildebeest flee for their lives. To escape the inferno, they must cross over to the left bank of a crocodile-infested river. Can you help them figure out how to get across on the one raft available without losing any lives? Lisa Winer shows how.

Your interstellar police squad has tracked a group of criminals to a cluster of seven planets. Now you must apprehend them before their reinforcements arrive. Of course, the fugitives won’t just stay put – they’ll try to dodge you by moving from planet to planet. Can you devise a sequence for searching the planets that’s guaranteed to catch them in ten warps or less? Edwin F. Meyer shows how.

The villainous Dr. Schrödinger has developed a growth ray and intends to create an army of giant cats to terrorize the city. Your team of secret agents has tracked him to his underground lab. You burst in to find… that it’s a trap! Can you escape from Dr. Schrödinger’s lair and save the day? Dan Finkel shows how.

Your team has developed a probe to study an alien monolith. It needs protective coatings — in red, purple or green — to cope with the environments it passes through. Can you figure out how to apply the colors so the probe survives the trip? Dan Finkel shows how.