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Can you solve Dongle's Difficult Dilemma? - Dennis E. Shasha

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TEDEd Animation

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According to legend, three galactic terraformers shaped your planet into a paradise. When their work was done, they left the source of their power behind: three golden hexagons, hidden in dungeons full of traps and monsters. If one person were to bring all three together, they could reinvent the world however they saw fit. Can you collect the hexagons before your rival? Dennis E. Shasha shows how.

Sometimes bidders collude to reduce the price for the seller. There is a long history of this even extending to Federal Communication Commission auctions for frequency spectrum. If you were the seller and knew that each gigahertz of spectrum should be worth say $10 million, but you are selling three gigahertz and there are only three bidders, what might you do to combat collusion? Try to enforce anti-collusion laws, announce that one of the gigahertz bands is not for sale, or put in a reserve price?

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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 Dennis Shasha
  • Director Igor Coric, Artrake Studio
  • Narrator Addison Anderson
  • Director of Production Gerta Xhelo
  • Editorial Director Alex Rosenthal
  • Producer Bethany Cutmore-Scott
  • Editorial Producer Alex Rosenthal
  • Script Editor Alex Gendler
  • Fact-Checker Eden Girma

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