Vsauce Kevin here with the ultimate
representation of good and evil an epic
battle of morality that has raged on
game boards across the globe for over
2,000 years
snakes and ladders wait snakes and
ladders that's nothing but a really
simple kids game right wrong while the
rules are simple the math psychology and
hidden spiritual lessons are
surprisingly complex so to highlight
that unique combination in a visual way
I commissioned an intricate version of
the game that harnesses electricity to
demonstrate the unpredictable gameplay
the circuit that's made as we play will
not only show the path to victory but
will also reveal the meaning of life
sort of this video is sponsored by LG
Chem and this custom game board was
created by engineering YouTube wizard
Allen Pan the winner of this game of
snakes and ladders will trigger this
mystery box to do something
I seriously 100% do not know what's
inside this box or what will happen when
the first player reaches the final
square but we're about to find out
together I do know that it's powered by
16 double-a batteries Allen put it
together in an afternoon and he promised
me he promised that it will not burn
down my house so that's good
here's how it works Allen 3D printed red
and yellow game pieces that contain
about 50 feet of stainless steel
conductive thread he's put a nail
juncture at every snake's head and tail
on every ladders top and bottom and at
the end of each row on the board
I'll start by hooking up both game
pieces to this bolt and tightening this
nut down on it I'll be red and you will
be yellow and as we play I'll wrap the
steel thread around
these junctures which will weave a path
up ladders and downs snakes to show a
trail of each players movement on the
game board here's the important part
when the winning players piece touches a
node on the final square that will
complete a circuit to the
battery-powered mystery box and whatever
this thing does it will do hey why are
we bothering with 16 alkaline batteries
instead of using just a couple of those
powerful lithium-ion cells because those
lithium-ion cells that kinda look like
alkaline batteries are not safe when it
comes to lithium-ion cells they should
be assembled into an enclosed battery
pack with protective circuitry battery
manufacturers like LG Chem regard
consumer safety as their number-one
priority and that's why they do not sell
bare cells to consumers wait what are
Bare cells? Bare cells refer to
individual lithium-ion cells that are
not incorporated into battery packs with
protective circuitry lithium-ion cells
not embedded in a device with safety
mechanisms made by credible
manufacturers are currently being used
as a replaceable and rechargeable power
source in devices like flashlights
portable fans vapes and chargers if the
cells insulating wrapper gets damaged
while inserting and removing these bare
cells the negative can is exposed and
metal objects like keys and coins make a
dangerous connection between the
negative can and the positive cap this
can cause a short-circuit leading to a
sudden release of high-temperature gas
and flammable materials which is called
thermal runaway which is bad no one
wants that so don't buy it don't sell it
stay safe now let's climb some ladders
and slide down some snakes or chutes you
probably know this game as chutes and
ladders since that's the name Milton
Bradley gave it in 1943 when it was
imported to the
U.S. and sold for 50 cents I guess they
thought snakes were scary and weird
which they are but to the game actually
goes back much much further than your
grandpa Joe it actually originated in
India in about the second century BC and
was meant to teach children the
importance of karma and kama existences
push and pull between one's destiny and
the actions that disrupt the path to
that destiny
the gameplay is obviously very simple
the two players started at square one
which may actually be where we get the
phrase starting at square one and then
roll a die. Four. The player then moves
that number of spaces if you land at the
bottom of a ladder then you get to climb
the ladder to that space if you land at
the head of a snake then you have to
slide backwards down to the snake's tail
and if there's nothing on the space then
it's the other players turn the first
player to get to the final 100 space
wins that's it that's the game in the
Official Rules you need an exact roll to
reach the 100th space so like if you're
two spaces away you need to roll a two
to win but that can get pretty tedious most
people just call it a win when you roll
at least high enough to get to the final
space and I'll do the same. Boards
historically labeled ladders that
advance your piece with good virtuous
actions like generosity or learning
conversely snakes were depicted along
with vices such as greed or gluttony
navigate these snakes and ladders
successfully and the winner escapes
samsara life's cycle of death and
rebirth to reach moksha or salvation who
knew a game literally recommended for
three-year-olds was this profound just
looking at this board I can see that
snakes are a lot worse than the ladders
are beneficial but how much worse we can
figure out the breakdown of this boards
10 ladders and 11 snakes from 4 to 16 is
a plus 12 12 to 33 is a plus 21
49 to 51 plus two. Not much of a help there
and 88 to 92 is a plus for all right
snakes 21 to 3 that's a minus 18. 50 to
11 minus 39. 93 to 25 minus 68 it's like falling
down a well and 99 to 58 munis 41. Alright so
the advantage of ladders we're looking at
118 divided by 10 equals plus 11.8 per ladder and for snakes
we're looking at 388 divided by 11
equals minus 35.27
per snake it's almost exactly three
times worse to land on a snake than it
is beneficial to land on a ladder and
there's an additional snake in there
just to make it tougher because why not
and this whole thing is probably just
random no it's not an integral message
of this game is that it's harder to
follow a path of good than it is to
follow a path of bad it's just easier to
slide down into bad choices and bad
habits and it is to lift yourself up
with virtuous deeds and as subtle as the
game's hidden moral lessons maybe get a
load of the unseen mathematical
operation this absolutely ancient board
game is actually a 101-state
absorbing Markov chain a series of
events that depends on the state of the
prior event which we first explored in
Parrondo's paradox that could
theoretically go on forever especially
when you've got so many punishing snakes
and if you want to make absolutely sure
the next time you're playing this with
your five-year-old sister Sally that it
doesn't last nine hours well you can't I
mean it's not likely that a game will
last the rest of your lives but with
just the right combination of rolls and
snakes it
actually could because snakes and ladders
isn't a game of skill there's nothing
you can do to speed up a win and there's
no mistake that you can make to lose all
you can do is roll and see what happens
okay this is taking a while what if I
really really want to know when this
game will end I can use board states and
random rolls to run a Monte Carlo
simulation that gives us the most common
length of our snakes and ladders game
and the odds of any given length four
four four yes we are close one two three
four for you one two three four all
right look until this moment I had left
this battery out for a reason I was
worried that I don't know I would have
messed something up and then this thing
would have done something and then I
wouldn't have been able to put whatever
happens back in here so the fact is
we're at ninety eight and it's my turn
and as long as I don't roll a one it is
the actual moment of truth I've reached
the end of the board I've successfully
ascended ladders and overcome the
pitfalls of evil snakes so I'm gonna put
this battery in now
it is fully charged as they say it is
lit okay I'm gonna move everything so
that you get the best possible look at
whatever is about to happen next
don't roll the one don't roll the one
don't roll the one
don't roll a one okay four all right oh
here we go
my gosh it was actual snakes well not
actual snakes but spring-loaded snakes
the gearing up of it was actually almost
as scary as the exploding snakes
themselves snakes and ladders is a
remarkable combination of mathematics
and human psychology that was invented
centuries before the stochastic
techniques needed to analyze it were
known let alone two board game designers
think about it a game intended for
children needs to average just the right
length too short and it's not
interesting enough too long and it gets
boring snakes and ladders nailed this so
perfectly that thousands of years later
kids are still growing up playing the
game and that isn't an accident billions
of people across 100 generations have
played snakes and ladders without even
considering the deep story of numbers
morality and the essence of human
existence buried below its childish
facade in describing the Hindu board
game Leela which is a 72 space version
of snakes and ladders Harish Johari said
there is really only one game the game
in which each of us is a player acting
out his role and while sometimes in life
we land on
ladders that launch us ahead and other
times we step on snakes that slide us
back you gotta just pick up the die and
give it another roll because the game
goes on until eventually you reach your
goal whether that's reaching Nirvana or
triggering a mystery box of springy
snakes and as always thanks for watching
hey I recently went to Philadelphia and
shot a really cool video with LG Chem to
explain the dangers of handling bare
cells lithium-ion cells can release way
way more energy than alkaline batteries
which makes them amazing when they're
properly and safely enclosed in a
protective battery pack but seriously
risky to handle when bare so to see me
walk you through how unsafe it is to use
bare cells and just learn more check out
the great video that I made with LG Chem
click the link down in the description
below to do that you are going to really
enjoy it I you can figure out what to do
with these pesky snakes any device that
requires a user to handle bare cells is
dangerous if the cells insulating
wrapper is damaged while inserting and
removing the bare cells from the device
the negative can becomes exposed and
metal objects like a key or a coin can
make a dangerous connection between the
negative can and the positive cap a
connection like this could cause a short
circuit leading to a sudden release of
high-temperature gas and flammable
materials which is called thermal
runaway
and the result
stop
