The Assassin Puzzle | Infinite Series
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Viewers like you help make PBS (Thank you 😃) . Support your local PBS Member Station here: https://to.pbs.org/donateinfi Imagine you have a square-shaped room, and inside there is an assassin and a target. And suppose that any shot that the assassin takes can ricochet off the walls of the room, just like a ball on a billiard table. Is it possible to position a finite number of security guards inside the square so that they block every possible shot from the assassin to the target? Tweet at us! @pbsinfinite Facebook: facebook.com/pbsinfinite series Email us! pbsinfiniteseries [at] gmail [dot] com Solution to the Assassin Puzzle: www.math3ma.com/mathema/2018/5/17/is-the-square-a-secure-polygon Previous Episode: Instant Insanity Puzzle https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lw1pF... Let’s walk through this puzzle a little more precisely. First, instead of thinking of a physical room with actual people inside, I really want you to think of a square in the xy plane. Pick any two points in the square, and let’s call one of those points A for “assassin,” and the other point T for “target.” Now a “shot” from the assassin is really just a ray emanating out of the point A which can, like a ball on a billiard table, bounce back and forth between the sides of the square. But unlike an actual game of pool, let’s assume the trajectory has constant speed and that it can bounce back and forth for forever! Written and Hosted by Tai-Danae Bradley Produced by Eric Brown Graphics by Matt Rankin Assistant Editing and Sound Design by Mike Petrow and Linda Huang Made by Kornhaber Brown (www.kornhaberbrown.com) Special thanks to Roman Pinchuk for supporting us on our Converse level on Patreon. Along with thanks to Matthew O'Connor, Yana Chernobilsky, and John Hoffman who are supporting us on Patreon at the Identity level! And thanks to Mauricio Pacheco and Andrew Poelstra who are supporting us at the Lemma level!