ShmoopTube

00:00

there's nothing more mysterious than a mystery. especially the mystery

00:05

who keeps stealing our lunch out of the break room fridge. we've got our eye on [man holds magnifying glass]

00:10

you there Larry. uh-huh anyway .lucky for us the case of

00:13

the disappearing ham sandwich doesn't have to go unsolved.

00:16

turns out there's a general method for solving mysteries .and that's right Larry

00:20

watch your back. it's a four-step process identify compiled look and deduce. all [man sits at a table, empty plate in front of him]

00:25

right we can learn more about these steps that we see them in action so

00:28

let's consider an example of a mystery let's say someone made a delicious ham

00:31

sandwich and put it in the company fridge. but when they came back for it

00:35

three hours later it was gone. sound familiar Larry? mm-hmm anyway let's [inside of fridge shown]

00:39

start with step one. identify. in this step we figure out the main problem or

00:44

question that needs to be solved. well in this case the question we need to solve

00:49

is what happened to the sandwich? yeah. step two is compiling. in this step we

00:54

make a list of the main subjects as well as their motives. in this case it might

00:58

turn out that there are two main suspects. the carton of milk which was [shadow lineup]

01:02

suspiciously close to the sandwich, and Larry. Gee Larry wonder who it could be? all

01:08

right well in the third step we look for major clues and judge which ones are the

01:12

most important in solving the case. one clue might be the size 10 sandal print

01:18

leading to and from the fridge. oh yeah who wears a size 10 sandal again Larry?

01:23

hmm but a more important clue might be the globs of mayonnaise still on some

01:27

part of Larry's mouth there. yeah call it a hunch. and finally we deduce. well this [man has mayo on his mouth]

01:33

means using a chain of reasoning in the clues to solve the case .seeing as we can

01:38

follow the sandal trail right back to the mayonnaise mouth to man himself a

01:42

very reasonable theory would be that Larry needs to buy his own lunch and

01:46

stop being a freeloader. oh and Larry in case you were wondering our secret

01:51

ingredient is two saliva yeah that keeps the whole thing moist. [woman makes sandwich]

01:57

yeah.

Full Transcript