Countdown - The Most Extraordinary Numbers Game Ever?
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- čas přidán 17. 02. 2009
- From 1997 - James Martin's Numbers Game - This has got to be the most amazing numbers game answer ever - This video was originally hosted on another account. However, after his account was closed I thought I would upload this video. - All copyright remains with Yorkshire Television and ITV Productions - PLEASE COMMENT!
- Zábava
To explain why he's done this for people who might not understand:
He wants to go from 318 to 952, and he figures 3x318 - 2 = 952.
But! He doesn't have a 3 or a 2 at that point; he's just got 75, 50 and 25 left. He knows 75/25 = 3, and 50/25 = 2. But you can only use the 25 once. So in his mind he's thinking
3 x 318 - 2 = 952
(75/25) x 318 -- (50/25) = 952
So the only way to avoid using the 25 twice is to multiply & subtract first:
(75x318-50)/25 = 952
And he's worked that out without ever needing to know what 75x318 actually is.
Great explanation, thank you. Seems so much simpler now.
I saw this video years ago... And then it pops up in my feed today, just in time to see this explanation. Nice.
Thankyou Jesus
Algebra. Dang.
It's weird that we're supposed to be more impressed that he didn't know than if he did.
While watching this as a kid i always wondered why they bothered having an entire clock if they only used half of it.
Top comment of the week
Well they couldn't call it "count down then back up the other side" could they?
@@lordsummerisle87 Well they could have at least used some other measurement instrument that didn't waste space?
Cause of the dong.
Because at first it was reset by continuing back up to the top.
Dang, all I got was “Steadings”
Abdicates.
Tnetennba
I did it a different way and ended up with "Beamrules"
I got ‘news’, but there was no ‘W’.
And what have you been looking into recently?
Our 952 times table went up to 30 so I saw the division immediately.
oh uh whats 952 x 31?
@@pentagonanimates As we learned in school, 952 × 30 = 28,560. So simply add 952 and we get the answer of 29,512.
Edit. I'll be honest, I just did 952 × 30, added 1000 and subtracted 48.
@@michaellavery4899 oka
@@michaellavery4899 looool clown
@@michaellavery4899 that's just witchcraft
I don’t know why this is in my recommended but I’m not mad about it
Coz the algorithm is fucked coz they're trying to erase PewDiePie
Same. I was on the Graham Norton recommendation train and suddenly this pops up
Cuz same
Think it is in my recommendations due to watching '8 out of 10 Cats does Countdown'
You don't watch anything to do with jimmy carr, 8 out of 10 cats or any of the other comedians that do their show do you cause that would explain it, because that's why its in my recommend, usually you have to have something vaguely slimier that you have watched for CZcams to recommend.... people who just say oh it randomly went in my recommends obviously don't know anything about how html5 or coding works, it's not magic... lol
THATS NUMBERWANG
32? Yes that's Numberwang!
+Jettera Ismabash I'm afraid that's numberwank
0.57?
That's the Numberwang bonus!!! Trippe Numberwang to Julie!!
DEATHWANG
I love how the host, after the answer is like, "out of curiosity, how did you get 953," and the other contestant sounds like, "Ah, who cares..."
That's basically true. I thought I had it.
But it's pretty straight forward to get 953.
100 x (3+9)
add 50
75/25 = 3
Add to 950, 953
@dahorn100011 i got that 953 in about 2 seconds but I couldn't get that 952 in 30 seconds
@@dahorn100011 that's 1253, I'm guessing that first 9 is supposed to be a six right?
@@85Portar yes
You could go even higher with the multiplication if you wanted to:
100 + 3 = 103.
103 x 75 = 7725.
7725 x 6 = 46,350.
46,350 / 50 = 927.
927 + 25 = 952.
Underrated comment 🙏🙏
Well done.
No way you did it in 30 seconds
Holy fuck
Yeah, with a calculator and more time.
All I got was tnetennba.
klasing moss!!
Your name is Morris Moss. Is it not?
Fizzy, it's very fizzy, it's fizzy, it's gone fizzy
MrNomadic76 *Maurice
It is not.
Everyone else get the obvious 953 in the first few seconds then thought "that'll fuckin do"?
exactly what i said to myself ha
Ḡαღ♭ℓ℮ℳαḓм@η that'll fucking do, damn right that's what I thought😂😂😂😂😂
haha, hit the nail on the head with that!
I used all the numbers anyway, fuck it
bang on :D
At first I was like why tf is this in my feed then I remembered that I had just binged every episode of 8 out of 10 cats does countdown lol
Same here. One clip of Taskmaster gets featured on Reddit, and suddenly a bunch of us Americans get flooded with Channel 4 shows lol
Doctor Medkit or germans
Yep same
The thing about 8/10 Cats does Countdown is, I get really annoyed that they aren't taking the Countdown stuff more seriously.
The jokes are fine, but the Countdown stuff actually prevents from enjoying them. I see letters and numbers at the bottom of the screen and I go straight into competitive mode.
Same for me too, except for the ones weirdly missing from All 4 with no explanation.
This feels so impressive and clever, every time I see it.
106 x 3 x (75/25) = 954 is close, but he needs to subtract 2 to hit the target, and he only has a 50. But wait, the "divide by 25" suddenly fits perfectly into that. If you subtract the 50 right before you divide by 25, you actually subtracts 2 from the end result. He sees that, and figures it out, all in 30 seconds. So sharp.
Yes, that´s why he did not know how much 318 x 75 was, cause he did not need it.
That’s awesome… thank you for the breakdown
Exactly he didn't know the answer but knew what would happen after.
@@bowlchamps37well he is right on the 23,850 but & yes the rest of the equation was correct after doing some calculations myself. And that may have been far better than any of us would have had. I only got to 900 on this round.
Tbh, it is not THAT impressive. Maybe it was decades ago in a game show though.
Rachel Riley could have done 318 x 75
+I hate everyone. Yes, you too. Carol got better as she got older, with Rachel it will probably be the other way around.
+I hate everyone. Yes, you too. What?
Could you be any more disrespectful, wait you probably could. Don't answer that.
+hobofuture Who cares if she would have done it! She just looks better (hotter)! lol!
+SR1Records Vorderman was a late bloomer
I was happy with my 950.
nocalsteve I was happy with 953 ! I could have taken a year and not got to 952.
Same here mate. But being an ex Croupier and Gaming Inspector, I should have done better.
@@frazerguest2864 (6+3)
× 100
+ 50
?????
Profit
@@stevethea5250 but then you still have 75 and 25 left... and 75/25 is 3
@@Obliviaa oh yeee I'm not great at 25 timestables
If this man was born 500 years ago he would've been burned at the stake, but in the 90s his talent got him a countdown teacup
And a plunge into a flushing toilet from Chad
The real W is Carol calling you incredible
the things we take for granted.
He'd have taught Issac Newton before his demise.
That he did that in 30 seconds, on TV, is insane, credit to him, that is brilliant
It's a nice approach but not really insane. He purposely chose all 4 big numbers (25, 50, 75, 100) because they form nice ratios. He actually found the calculation "106×9=954" which is only 2 away, so he has to subtract 2. Also there is no 9 but a 3 so he can do "106×3×3-2" Now it was only a matter of how to get another 3 and a 2. Because of the nice ratios of the big numbers he got them (75/25=3 50/25=2). And because he only has one 25 he used the distributive law: 318×3-2 is the same as (318×75-50)/25. 3:55
Gerald’s delivery of his 953 answer was just so funny after all of that
GAMES, JAMES 0:11 RHYMES
@@stevethea5250 woah
@@stephenmccormick4839 we hit a WOAH
"so i multiplied the amount of atoms by pi squared divided by the cube root of infinity"
"and how about you"
"3 plus 9 timed 100 plus 50"
@@Llama_charmer I think the answer is 0
This is how uk men in the 90's stated their dominance, 4 from the top is just madness hahaha.
#MadLad
Deffo passive aggressive if you ask me
6 small ones is the equivalent of ordering a phall at an Indian restaurant...
Four from the top guarantees that you get 100, 75, 50, 25. So he'd probably spent a lot of time practising those combinations.
To be fair it gives you a 2 or 3 and 100 everytime, those are very useful numbers, im still a 2 from the top fan though
What makes this great is that he didn't even mention how unorthodox his method was. He just came out with it casually.
There is nothing unorthodox about mathematics.
@Oliver McCall in your mind maybe.
@Oliver McCall I totally get your point. 👍
@Oliver McCall so addition, division, multiplication and subtraction are not normal😂😂😂😂
@Oliver McCall lol. That's true. Ya gotta miss Richard.
What I like about this is Vorderman wasn't pretending to have worked out the answers. Which she could have done, but like the rest of us she was so surprised by the turn of events.
Her reaction makes this all the more comical
Mrs Vorderman to you.
@@testtubeaccident7805 She's divorced
@@lotuseater7247 Who isn't divorced these days?
@@AlcatrazHR me. The point was they said Mrs. Apparently she stated that she has a friend with benefits. Lucky guy.
I can see how he did it without knowing what 318 * 75 was.
What he essentially did was ((318 * 75) - 50)/25
which, simplified, is the same as 318 * (75/25) - (50/25)
which is 318 * 3 - 2.
which is 952. Very clever.
Still don't get it.
***** Absolutely
Are you allowed to use a number twice though, as in use the 25 twice?
amazed66 No, he's not using 25 twice. It's just saying you're dividing both numbers by the 25, since it's all in brackets.
My reading of this is that he saw that he could get another 3 from 75/25 to multiply by the 318 and get 954, two over the target. He then saw that by counting in 25s, 50 was the two he needed to subtract and that is how he got to the "multiply by 75, subtract 50 and then divide by 25" as the solution. This is essentially what you said but I don't believe that he actually formulated the calculation as you wrote it, which is why he was unsure.
It shows that there is a lot more to these puzzles than just trying a few calculations on the numbers.
The Australian version of Countdown is called 'Letters and Numbers' I think, who here thinks it should be called Count-Down Under?
david astle is my hero
A straight translation from the original Les chiffres et les nombres.
@@andrewguthrie2 It's actually "Des Chiffres et des Lettres" :)
@@pomeriggio5479 Who is Des ? Does this relate to Des Lynam:The Countdown Presenter...?
@@Isleofskye No, Des does not refer to the Countdown presenter
That's numberwang!
That was a classic sketch
LATCHCOMB!
This is like John Carpenter ringing his Dad, not to ask for his help (phone a friend in Who Wants to Be a Millionaire) but telling him he IS going to be a millionaire, brilliant!
Except he won a teapot and not a million dollars. (Britain in a nutshell)
Rumour has it, he's still getting noshed off by all the grannies in the audience that day
John Cooper think they're dead mate
@Chris Landry fucking hell mate
There is a false teeth joke to be made but I’m in to much of a gross mood to make it myself.
@Chris Landry THESE 2 ARE SOAKING WET 3:55
Hahahahaha
Yeah but can he do it on a cold tuesday night in Stoke?!
Jamonga100 Few can!
+Jamonga100 im from stoke too, weird init
Up the Potters..
Top bantz m8
Jamonga100 can he do it in front of 50000 at wembley
Cant believe he worked this out in thirty seconds. Amazing.
01:50 "And then dividing by something": pure definition of anxious waiting.
His strategy is very clever. He asks Carol for the 4 biggest numbers 100 75 50 and 25. He then uses those numbers as ratios of 25 so (100/25 = 4) (75/25 = 3) and (50/25 = 2). Essentially guaranteeing himself 2 picks of 4, 3 and 2 and a large number (100 in this case) every numbers round. Crazy.
Not only that, he made himself some cheese on toast just before the show which helped him concentrate.
@@Smellmipoo4932 don't forget how good he was at words either. TNETENNBA was such a good word!
Yes👍
And i think he has done a lot of practice before going on as well
I'm not too shabby at arithmetic but this is the level of a savant
@@DemonetisedZone Yes, always choosing four big numbers means the games often go in very similar ways, so it's possible to practice. This case looks spectacular because of the large numbers but, as he says in the video, he didn't actually work out those big numbers. He wants to multiply by 3 and subtract 2, which would look pretty ordinary. But he doesn't have a 3 and a 2, so he uses 75/25 and 50/25 instead. Except that would use the 25 twice, which isn't allowed. So he multiplies by 75, subtracts 50 and then divides the answer by 25 to get the same effect, legally. That's why he was able to get the answer without knowing what 318*75 is.
Could you use that in a sentence?@@lachlanhines7644
Legend has it that Jon Richardson keeps a copy of this video in his home in case he needs an emergency adrenaline shot.
He uses cocaine instead, and I think it shows
For those who are confused, he just can’t used the 25 twice that’s why he puts both parts inside the brackets and divides the whole thing with 25. Gets the same answer as dividing each individual number by 25. A pretty common strategy done on this game actually. This just uses bigger numbers than usual so gives the illusion it’s more complicated
It's not an illusion mate
Well done.
I knew I shouldn't have skipped class that day when they were covering the 952 times table.
I knew I should stayed for the 30 times table, but it only went up to 951...
I learned how to cheat at tables tests as soon as it reached 7 so I guess I never reached 952.
I just love how much Carol is laughing and enjoying this
she was drunk
@@INeedANewHandle Seems like it huh
Sounded false to me ,think she was pissed off cos she didn't get there first
Buying time so the producers in the gallery could work out the answer on their calculator and feed her the answer on her ear piece.
@@neilhartley5372 Think you might be right there
Carol's laugh is more funny than the outrageous sum, she has a good sense of humour.
She has the dirtiest laugh since Sid James
I agree she brings a good energy to the show
Numbers are hysterical I agree
To me she comes across as a giggling fool. What humour is she sensing? I'm betting it's an act for telly.
Even I gave that guy a round of applause 25 years later.
Me too
divide that by 25
her face when he says.... "I'd like to multiply by 75" is priceless
"Yes, same way Richard. Yup.".
[eats evidence to the contrary]
That was an incredible thing to work out in the 30 seconds he had. I think that what he realised fairly quickly was that if he adds the 100 to the 6 and multiplies it by three twice he gets 954 - just 2 away, One 3 is there directly so how to get the other 3? Well 75/25 = 3. The only trouble is that we need to subtract another 2 from that total to bring it down to 952 and we only have the number 50 left. But, 50/25 = 2 so, rather than just taking 318 X (75/25), we could do it as (318 X 75 - 50)/25. That way the 25 serves to reduce the 75 to 3 and the 50 to 2 all in one go :) The give away was that he didn't realised what 318 X 75 made. He didn't need to know this intermediate figure with the method above.
Correct
i love how when carol was asked to divide that she was just like "yea... ill take your word for it..."
I actually did the sequence on the calculator and it was correct.
You only need to times the 238 bit by 4, which will give you 952.
I sometimes just return to this video because I really enjoy everyone's amazement at this guy's skills.
the american version of this game was cancelled in 17 minutes due to mass inability to think.
Why is there so much unprovoked xenophobia on these British TV clips?
Is that part of what they teach you on your little island?
Why is there so much unprovoked bombing the shit out of things on everywhere?
Aaron Fisher We can only assume jealousy plays a part. I can assure you that it only seems to be on the Internet; I've not met many in person who randomly spouts this crap.
+Aaron Fisher Hahahaa oh dear speak for yourselves
Moonspell67 haha
I'm an intellectual because this was in my recommended. *updates CV
czcams.com/video/bhf0XRlEmcw/video.html
LMAO
Now THAT is the epitome of ‘method in the madness’. Brilliant 😁
carols reactions were hilarious. i was in stitches!! brilliant
how does this comment not say “12 years ago” because HOW DOES THIS COMMENT NOT SAY “12 YEARS AGO-
English are so polite. When she say "multiply this", he just says "yes, please". I my country it would be like "bitch, do your job".
@@goranmilic442 jeez. where are you from?
There is always someone out there cleverer than yourself.
Hi neilswann80! Thanks for the reply! Lol! Now, is that 1 person supposed to be me?! Actually there always is the 1 cleverest person himself who is the cleverest. Good Point! With Best Wishes! Cheers - Mike.
Lol! Delusional mate!
*****
OK?!
more clever
Probably not me but I'm content.
Obviously he mastered those manipulations of the big numbers, that's why he asks for all of them. So there are 3 variables instead of 7. It's a great strategy. I wish my brain could wrap around that logic more intuitively. It was clear he made an equation so he didn't have to do all the multiplication and division, but I would have no idea how to do that.
I think this is what went though his mind:
quickly find the easy (3+6)*100+50+75/25=953, only one away, let's take some time to try and get an exact answer
maybe something with 100*3*75/25 = 100*9 = 900, having 6 and 50 left. won't get you any closer.. maybe multiply the 6 by 9 as well to get 54 so:
(100+6)*3*75/25 =900+54 = 954, having 50 left. Now when you've written that down as a fraction:
(100+6)*3*75
---------------------
25
and you know you're 2 off, it's easy to see that you can add/subtract 2 by adding/subtracting 50 from the numerator. Then you arrive at 952. No need to calculate 318*75
+kroppyer Yes! Nicely explained
He quickly found out 318*3= 954. (106*3*75/25). Needs 2 to subtract. That is the minus 50 devided by 25. He did not need to know the intermediate high number, he knew the final result is 954-2.
😶
Tracie Irene you done well to explain it
I love how Carol laughs in disbelief! 😀
👏 that was (without A shadow of a doubt ) the most amazing numbers game I have ever seen in countdown
Just watched the middle section from " 318 " 6 times now and it's still hilarious because of it's uniqueness and his audacity but also because he stopped her taking the mathematical shortcut by telling her to wait for the large division which would have saved her having to work it out and also what was great was after the " 23,850" Carol is awaiting the large subtraction to get the amount down and he, merely, subtracts just " 50"...Brilliant !
There would never have been a large subtraction as the most he could have subtracted is 125. Carol actually asked him "Are you going to divide by something else?"
It's to be expected to fuss around up there. Why doesn't she expect the option? Are the answers usually like (12+3)/5 or some shit I could do?
Carol was pushed beyond her design specs and started to break up.
The way some people can think always amazes me.
30 seconds to work that out. Incredible!
Wow! That was out of the box thinking. Awesome.
funny seeing people posting easier solutions, they had all the time needed to come up with their solution, on the show you get 30 seconds.
***** and no calculators.
Yeah and with that irritating music going on.
In this case, that is the optimal solution, its not about knowing how to quickly multiply big numbers, its understanding how you can make use of the factor of 25.
If carol wrote the solution out in one go, it would all have cancelled down to 952 without having to do that big multiplication.
Well I got my 953 in 15 seconds without a calculator :P
@@Slimmeyy Too bad that's not the goal number
Been avoiding this video on my recommended for weeks,
Finally decided to click on it and I'm not disappointed!!
😮
Same mate!
3:30 please have a minute of silence for a fallen soldier
I spilt my tea slightly watching this when it first aired. It really was that thrilling
Carol "you want to multiply by 75?"
Maths genius" yes, that's exactly what we're doing"
Carol: *throffing intensifies*
Don't worry Carol, Rachel Riley is here to rescue you from doing your job.
@@ColinRichardson Oof, too soon!
What’s throffing?
Nice work James, Carol is now damp!
lol quality lol
@Shaun Brennan still would
She needed tampons that day
*moist
@@gatecrasherkz7 damp
Excellent! Lovely 50 subtraction in the middle is absolutely hilarious!
I loved watching Countdown after school back in the late 90’s
That's Numbawang!!
lol
Jimmy Saville, you should be ashamed of yourself, and the things you've done.
Forcing Google+ Makes Me Feel Better About the Spying lets rotate the board
Number wank!
@@samcoburn9527 it's NumberWANG!
Rest in peace Richard whiteley, what a Gent
I met him once. He was an absolute bastard. I asked him how he was and he told me to fuck off and then he kicked my pet ferret.
Nice to see old Twice Nightly's smiley face once more. A legend, taken far too soon.
This is so legendary that I do just return to it now and again. :)
While this is impressive there's actually another way to get it without venturing into such big numbers. This is how I got it, I can't imagine I'm the only one.
75 x 6 = 450
450 / 50 = 9
100 + 3 = 103
103 x 9 = 927
927 + 25 = 952
To me this was easier to see than the way he got it.
+BrettMKW
Yes impressive.
Did you do that in 30 seconds?
***** Yeah, just how my mind works. I see that 927 can be factored into 103 x 9 pretty intuitively, and that adding the 25 gives the 952. That was the easy part for me, the tough part was getting to the 9 but taking a number and multiplying by 75 then dividing by 50 is the same as multiplying by 1.5, and 6 x 1.5 = 9. There's been a lot of complex solutions that I can't solve with an easy way but this was one I figured out quite nicely.
Very impressive!
My friend Steve is like that. A human calculator.
***** Thanks, I've always been good at mathematics up to calculus level (calculus wasn't so easy for me) but I struggled with english and history throughout school. By the way this guy didn't multiply 318 by 75 in his head or even on paper in 30 seconds. He knew that multiplying by 75 then dividing by 25 is the same as multiplying by 3, and 318 x 3 = 954. By subtracting the 50 inbetween he knows it subtracts 2 from the final answer. It's really a brilliant solution. If you want more you should search the name George Ford, he does solutions like this all the time like nothing.
+BrettMKW
Mathematics is in my opinion the purest form of science.
I'm generally good at science but average at math.
One of my hobbies is Astronomy. Possibly the oldest branch of science.
Thanks for the breakdown on the number crunching!
...incredible! I'm good at some math, but this was quite a challenge! This really could be the most amazing Number Game that Countdown has ever had to offer! Wow!
Ah !! Those halcyon days when Carol Vorderman wasn’t made of silicone and plastic 😂😂
He probably started with 106*9=954, which is close, but you cannot use the 6 twice, so the you need to find another 3 or a 6. Well, 75/25 gives you 3, so if you go (100+6)*3*75/25 you get 954. I expect this was what Carol was thinking - if he is going to divide by 25 then she only needs to multiply by 3. But he also noticed that if you are 2 out, then before you divide by 25 you are 50 out (2x25). So subtract the 50 before you divide by 25 and you are spot on.
Of course, he has to do this in 30 seconds, and I could only get as far as the 954. Even the other guy had 953. Generally, though, a good tactic is to look for combinations that give you the same number, such as 3 = 75/25, then you can scale up and back down.
When I was younger, I used to watch the show that inspired this. It was a French show called "Des chiffres et des lettres". It wasn't an exciting show by any means, but I was fascinated by how people could solve the problems.
I used to watch it as well when I lived in Belgium as a kid.
Same! It aired in Eastern Canada!
Carol: That is 318
James: Now multiply that by 75
Carol: and then you're going to divide that right?
James: Yes, but not right away
Carol: ...
Carol: What will you divide it by?
James: 25, but before that I want to subtract 50
Carol: You mean we have to actually work out this value?
Pretty epic answer.
The glory years of countdown rip richard you were the best xx
Yes, I have never watched the new ones.
@@Musicienne-DAB1995they are crap. 30 minutes Richard Whitely era was far better.
We used to do these in math at school near the end of the lesson. At the end we would see a list of all possible solutions which were computer generated, for some of them, depending on what numbers you had to work with, there would be hundreds of solutions, most of us here struggle to find one.
He just divided 50 and 75 by 25 in his head to get 2 and 3, and then used order of operations to use 25 "twice". Essentially, all he did was (100+6) * 3=318. 318 * (75/25)-(50/25)=318 * 3-2=954-2=952. He just multiplied by 75 before subtracting so he could "reuse" the 25(this is even clearer when the contestant starts calculating 318 * 75 along with the expert, implying he didn't already). Still neat, but doesn't look as clever without the heavy lifting...
Absolutely correct, I got that when I was watching it.. he didn't know what 318*75 was. I was surprised Carol didn't call him out on that. Effectively you can turn any simple commutative operation like this into something really impressive by changing the order. Everyone including posters here has fallen for it.
This clip lives in my head rent free 😩
Gossshhh, this is incredible! I settled for the 953 I found while playing along, but I never would've thought 952 was possible ;u;
pretty good. Im quite good myself i can multiply any two numbers. for example.. 3 multiplied by 4 is 12. And i can do that in real life pretty quick. not quite as good as this guy.. but still good.
@RonnyDonny13 Dude, same! And I know 0.5*0.5 is 1!
Wait a minute...
Let me tell you gentlemen it's such an honour to be amongst such superior intellect
Hope to see you all winning the Math Olympiad gold medal one day.
Don't tell me to not get my hopes up.
Ha,remember watching this when it first broadcast. One of Countdown's more memorable moments to be sure -a seriously impressive bit of lightning mental calculation/algebraic insight. Going by memory the contestant was an actual mathematician ,with a degree from Oxford(edit: current Oxford mathematics professor) Consequently, this sort of thing would've been more or less a day at the office for him.
Sort of; but prof mathematicians at that level don't actually do as much with numbers as you might think. They work on more abstract stuff and get computers to do their arithmetic for them.
Lol most mathematicians can't add up a dartboard to save their life
I study maths. I doubt anyone in my course can add 5+8 in less than 10 seconds.
I haven't rly dealt with numbers since linear Algebra in first year. Even then, I had a calculator and haven't practiced pure multiplication since I was 12.
Nah, for a math professor at Oxford it is certain that this sort of thing was NOT part of his daily routine. He probably trained specifically for this, while being very smart about it (picking all 4 big numbers so he dealt with familiar patterns). While quick mental arithmetics isn't most mathematicians' main task, a lot of them would easily add up a dartboard or work out 5+8 quick enough... To get to an advanced level one would have gone through enough training and shown enough talent in math in general.
@@alexpotts6520 Right, but being a mathematician helped him quickly see that "multiply by 75, subtract 50, divide by 25" is the same thing as "multiply by 3 and subtract 2". He wasn't a professor at the time this was filmed -- I'm not sure how old he is, but I think it would have been around the time he was an undergraduate.
Got recommended this is 2021. Still cool to watch.
Others have already addressed how he did it, but to summarise, he essentially used mental algebra and factorisation rather than straight mental arithmetic, which is why he didn't know what the intermediate value of 318 * 75 equalled, only that [(318 * 75) - 50] / 25 was 952, due to 318 * 3 = 954 and 954 - 2 = 952. From (318 * 3) - 2 comes (318 * 75/25) - 50/25, and then he essentially factored out the 25 so he could reuse it.
(As for how he worked out that 318 * 3 = 954, it's essentially a rearrangement of 106 * 9 = 954; adding small numbers to the large ones is a common strategy to 'adjust' the total and essentially 'reuse' a multiplier)
Quite a clever Idea. But it is not necessary to do the multiplication in full. Just manipulate the factors.
(100+6) x 3 = 318
318 x 75 = 318 x 3 x 25 = 954 x 25
954 x 25 - 50 = 954 x 25 - 2 x 25 = (954 - 2) x 25 = 952 x 25
952 x 25/25 = 952.
I feel like you're breaking some very important math rules with this abomination
nuraH S This is called factorization and distribution in mathematics. You can break any number up as long as it satisfied certain mathematical conditions. I think you got thrown off by 954*25 - 50 = 954*25 - 25*2 = 25(954-2)= 25*952/25 = 952. The number 25 was never used until the very end so he did not break any rule in mathematics nor the game. I believe the idea of the game was taking all six numbers and get as close to the target number as possible.
***** OK, all the required numbers will be in quotes.
( "100" + "6" ) X "3" = 318
318 X "75" = 318 X 3 X 25 = 954 X 25
Thanks for breaking it down. Looking at these calculations I think I know what he was thinking.
He immediately saw 100 and 6 and easily calculated that 100*9 = 900 and 6*9=54, and 954 is very close to the target so he went along with this idea. He knew he could get that 9 because he had both a 3 and 75/25 available. Now, here's where it turned into crazy big numbers. He need to get off 2 from 954, he had a 50 left to play with and since he already had a division with 25 he could easily get a 2 from 50/25. All it would take was to insert the 50 at the right moment. It was necessary to subtract the 50 after multiplying by 75 and before dividing by 25. Normally, you would just do 75/25, get a 3 and calculate with the 3, which is a walk in the park, but when forced to actually multiply with 75 it sort of blew up to crazy proportions out of nowhere.
Khonh lo He had 30 seconds in a semi pressure environment to solve it, LOL it takes 30sec just to write all yours out :PIn the rules you don't have to use all the numbers, you can only + - * / ,No negative numbers and there is no zero on the cards.I factorize a lot, I always have done, it started out as "double and halving" in multiplication when I was really young and it grew from there, I was always getting in trouble at school for doing this in my head and not showing any "working out" they used to think that I was cheating, LOL nothing like encouraging a child is there.
that's how you get Vorderman into bed
It would take more than that to get Rachel Riley into bed.
Mike Halcomb Both of you are 1005 correct and in both cases, very unfortunate...
It's important to always aim to be 1005 correct.
Today you need to use a Stena stairlift.
Mike Halcomb would rather get Carol though
well, he wasn't really doing that large multiplication in his head, but something like this may have been his thought process:
954 , close enough, is 106x9 = 106x3x3. So you can do (100+6)*3* (75/25).
Now you need to take away 2. which is 50/25
954-2=(100+6)*3*(75/25) - (50/25)
But unfortunately you already used 25. However if you subtract the 50 before the division with 25, you get to use it for both:
954-2=((100+6)*3*75 - 50)/25.
I love it how the guy doesn't seem confident in answering but actually has the correct answer. lol
WOW, I don't think I have ever seen Carol flumoxed. She is a walking calculator.
I miss the duo :)
flummoxed I think
Rikk303 LOL, nicely spotted :)
she can only do basic arithmetic in her head.... nothing special.
Even Carol was shocked at the answer he gave! I was astounded!
My God Susie looks so young!
I mean she's still lively in 2020, but... So young! 🥰
That’s not susie....
Amazing well done sir 👍
My high school maths teacher 'Mad Dog' had a game similar to this. He'd pick a year and then a calendar month and you had to try to use the numbers in the year (in order) to make the numbers 1 - 31.
I remember one in particular when he was explaining his choice of year. I was bored, spinning a ruler on my pen. Suddenly my head was yanked back by my hair and I was staring into the eyes of Mad Dog; the sun gleaming off his long mane of frizzy hair that covered a tattoo of a naked woman on the back of his neck that was deemed to risque to expose to the eyes of minors.
'When was the American war of Independence'?! he bellowed.
The answer to this is not really well known in Australia but for some reason I knew the answer and so responded in a feeble tremble '1776?'.
'Lucky' he growled in reply and continued on with his lesson as if nothing had happened.
Ahh school days. But I'll give Mad Dog this, it was him that got me interested in the broader picture of maths. Escher, the history of maths, the oddities. And who could hate the guy that introduced them to the movie Stand and Deliver.
I was pleased with getting to 953 quickly for one away and stopped there.
Putting it on paper now, I believe his "method" relied on phrasing the problem in terms of order of operations such that actually knowing the product of the large multiplication step wasn't needed. He knew it would be offset by the ratio of the remaining numbers to get him there. It's just a simple subtraction from there.
Why didn't you teach maths at my school? Much more practical and impressive than the weird stuff I had to spend the final year of O Levels doing.
@@zacmumblethunder7466 Thanks. The gentleman who taught me maths was an older soft spoken African expatriate who often told us some little random fact about whatever concept he was going to introduce in the lesson. Perhaps it helped to make the *method* of solution stand apart from the "spade work" of actually crunching the numbers.
In fact, years later, my Calculus instructor for the first two years of Uni also brought *his* sample problems through a method only up to what he called spade work (his term) and stopped.
It was assumed that we could all crunch the numbers by then. He just literally helped us with making sense of the Greek.
@@puirYorick Somehow I got grade A maths but I never understood what we were doing or why in the final year. I just did what we were told to do. I used to play with numbers away from school and came up with most of my mental calculation techniques myself, checking my answers on a calculator, as we just didn't seem to cover that sort of thing in school. I hate how it's almost seen as a badge of honour to be able to say "I don't understand maths, I can't add two and two".
I'd say the two subjects most poorly served by modern education are maths and history.
@@zacmumblethunder7466 Certainly a lot of the maths whiz types have a special gift for manipulating numbers in their headspace. I'm okay but nothing special that way.
The concept of left brain & right brain function and the degree of cooperation between the two likely is a huge factor.
There are resource books giving some simple tricks and techniques for "doing maths" but I can't think of any titles myself.
@@puirYorick I might track one or two down. I'm at that age where I need to do a bit of brain exercise.
I got involved in an event where we were asked to do physical exercises that cross the right/left brain a d body divide and I did feel more mentally alert after.
What an answer, and To get it in 30 seconds regardless of if he had trained using the 25,50,75,100 as some have said is truely amazing.👍😎
This guy would be great at Street Countdown
This is how he did it so quickly. Notice that 318*3=954 which is 954+2.
And 318=954/3. So when he multiplies by 75: 75*(318) = 75*(954/3) he is scaling up by 25, or to evaluate = 25*954 = 25*(954+2) = 25*954 + 25*2 = 25*954+50. Or to put it another way, the '2' is scaled up by 25 aswell, so taking away 50 will get you to be a factor of 25 away from the target. So you divide by 25 to get the answer.
Why u all talking about 954??? They looking for 952 ya tool
I kinda wished for a moment that he’d get Carol to multiply all of the numbers and after Carol finishes then say that he forgot, Now that would be a good laugh
I don't know how old is that man now but ı am sure he still remembers this moment sometimes and smiles.
Very nice. [(106 * 3) * 75 - 50]/25 simplifies down to 106 * 9 - 2 = 952, which was the actual calculation he'd done.
The trick was putting the numbers together in such a way where you get all that without repeating a digit, which is why the 50 had to be taken off in the middle as opposed to simply subtracting 50/25
Repeating a number, not a digit. The digit "5" gets repeated thrice in "75", "50", "25".
He just reordered the equation to avoid repeating the 25. The computation itself is easy - he didn't even need to know the value of 318*75... what was impressive was how quickly he saw the algebraic juggle.
318 times 3 is 954, since 75 is 3 times 25, you can say "times by 75 then divide by 25" and it is effectively times it by three. Since the goal is 952, 2 less than 954, and the only number left is 50, we can actually minus the 50 while it is a large number, because when it is reduced down again (at three times the original) it is also 2 less.
Actually really impressive. Cleverly multiplying by 3 and subtracting 2.
Ah who could ever forget the great Karen Venderman.
or even Carol Vorderman ?....
Legend has it this man is now an overseer of illegal street countdown games across the country. Known only as...Number
Numberwang?
add all the numbers together and reverse the order
+JYC422 I assume you can only use each number once
+JYC422 and ?
+TheMightyWill 25+50+75+100+6+3 = 259, this number backwards is 952, that's what he meant
Mone Ammouri
ooh right. Okay thanks for clearing that up!
That's actually quite impressive!