Countdown - The Most Extraordinary Numbers Game Ever?

[@AndrewJJ-0114]

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.

[@LucasM987]

Great explanation, thank you. Seems so much simpler now.

[@chrisdevine4848]

I saw this video years ago... And then it pops up in my feed today, just in time to see this explanation. Nice.

[@pinkflipper95]

Thankyou Jesus

[@SameBasicRiff]

Algebra. Dang.

[@ashscott6068]

It's weird that we're supposed to be more impressed that he didn't know than if he did.

[@holyravioli5795]

While watching this as a kid i always wondered why they bothered having an entire clock if they only used half of it.

[@misterbonzoid5623]

Top comment of the week

[@lordsummerisle87]

Well they couldn't call it "count down then back up the other side" could they?

[@holyravioli5795]

@@lordsummerisle87 Well they could have at least used some other measurement instrument that didn't waste space?

[@PiikachUwU_OSRS]

Cause of the dong.

[@vincitveritas3872]

Because at first it was reset by continuing back up to the top.

[@kirankaur7283]

I don’t know why this is in my recommended but I’m not mad about it

[@seb5689]

Coz the algorithm is fucked coz they're trying to erase PewDiePie

[@dan79600]

Same. I was on the Graham Norton recommendation train and suddenly this pops up

[@doncheadleneedle3377]

Cuz same

[@flokivilgerarson4500]

Think it is in my recommendations due to watching '8 out of 10 Cats does Countdown'

[@blueozzie4263]

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 KZbin 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

[@ogichi32]

Dang, all I got was “Steadings”

[@mattdickie4696]

Abdicates.

[@Hockstar97]

Tnetennba

[@lukecherry5882]

I did it a different way and ended up with "Beamrules"

[@frazerguest2864]

I got ‘news’, but there was no ‘W’.

[@danielmeixner7125]

And what have you been looking into recently?

[@hobofuture]

Rachel Riley could have done 318 x 75

[@hobofuture]

+I hate everyone. Yes, you too. Carol got better as she got older, with Rachel it will probably be the other way around.

[@hobofuture]

+I hate everyone. Yes, you too. What?

[@hobofuture]

Could you be any more disrespectful, wait you probably could. Don't answer that.

[@SR1Records]

+hobofuture Who cares if she would have done it! She just looks better (hotter)! lol!

[@hobofuture]

+SR1Records Vorderman was a late bloomer

[@AnkanBob]

THATS NUMBERWANG

[@jetteraismabash4186]

32? Yes that's Numberwang!

[@AnkanBob]

+Jettera Ismabash I'm afraid that's numberwank

[@jetteraismabash4186]

0.57?

[@LewysC]

That's the Numberwang bonus!!! Trippe Numberwang to Julie!!

[@DaveDexterMusic]

DEATHWANG

[@WalterKingstone]

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.

[@snapsnapdik]

Still don't get it.

[@WalterKingstone]

***** Absolutely

[@amazed66]

Are you allowed to use a number twice though, as in use the 25 twice?

[@WalterKingstone]

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.

[@JosephHaig]

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.

[@michaellavery4899]

Our 952 times table went up to 30 so I saw the division immediately.

[@pentagonanimates]

oh uh whats 952 x 31?

[@michaellavery4899]

@@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.

[@pentagonanimates]

@@michaellavery4899 oka

[@cosettapessa6417]

@@michaellavery4899 looool clown

[@metal-gods]

@@michaellavery4899 that's just witchcraft

[@gamblemadman]

Everyone else get the obvious 953 in the first few seconds then thought "that'll fuckin do"?

[@moist.teabag]

exactly what i said to myself ha

[@2013girlie]

Ḡαღ♭ℓ℮ℳαḓм@η that'll fucking do, damn right that's what I thought😂😂😂😂😂

[@nothanks4248]

haha, hit the nail on the head with that!

[@knockitoffhudson3470]

I used all the numbers anyway, fuck it

[@Ryan-ui4ju]

bang on :D

[@klasing]

All I got was tnetennba.

[@magzire]

klasing moss!!

[@MrNomadic76]

Your name is Morris Moss. Is it not?

[@caramba10]

Fizzy, it's very fizzy, it's fizzy, it's gone fizzy

[@seanjosephhayes]

MrNomadic76 *Maurice

[@bobbidowne1527]

It is not.

[@nocalsteve]

I was happy with my 950.

[@Charlienmeg]

nocalsteve I was happy with 953 ! I could have taken a year and not got to 952.

[@frazerguest2864]

Same here mate. But being an ex Croupier and Gaming Inspector, I should have done better.

[@stevethea5250]

@@frazerguest2864 (6+3) × 100 + 50 ????? Profit

[@Obliviaa]

@@stevethea5250 but then you still have 75 and 25 left... and 75/25 is 3

[@stevethea5250]

@@Obliviaa oh yeee I'm not great at 25 timestables

[@davidhill2020]

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..."

[@dahorn100011]

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

[@dominicharvey6048]

​@dahorn100011 i got that 953 in about 2 seconds but I couldn't get that 952 in 30 seconds

[@85Portar]

@@dahorn100011 that's 1253, I'm guessing that first 9 is supposed to be a six right?

[@dahorn100011]

@@85Portar yes

[@PaddyMac]

Gerald’s delivery of his 953 answer was just so funny after all of that

[@stevethea5250]

GAMES, JAMES 0:11 RHYMES

[@stephenmcc05]

@@stevethea5250 woah

[@stevethea5250]

@@stephenmcc05 we hit a WOAH

[@Llama_charmer]

"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"

[@harlowsafford5959]

The northern accent makes it

[@knap-dalf2215]

The Australian version of Countdown is called 'Letters and Numbers' I think, who here thinks it should be called Count-Down Under?

[@DrGamez123]

david astle is my hero

[@andrewguthrie2]

A straight translation from the original Les chiffres et les nombres.

[@pomeriggio5479]

@@andrewguthrie2 It's actually "Des Chiffres et des Lettres" :)

[@Isleofskye]

@@pomeriggio5479 Who is Des ? Does this relate to Des Lynam:The Countdown Presenter...?

[@pomeriggio5479]

@@Isleofskye No, Des does not refer to the Countdown presenter

[@crackedoutclown]

This is how uk men in the 90's stated their dominance, 4 from the top is just madness hahaha.

[@Pirosbor]

#MadLad

[@tonyfranklin8306]

Deffo passive aggressive if you ask me

[@leeball4585]

6 small ones is the equivalent of ordering a phall at an Indian restaurant...

[@beeble2003]

Four from the top guarantees that you get 100, 75, 50, 25. So he'd probably spent a lot of time practising those combinations.

[@nope110]

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

[@mercifulzeus01]

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.

[@RNCM_Philosophy]

Underrated comment 🙏🙏

[@swaldron5558]

Well done.

[@thesuperiorman8342]

No way you did it in 30 seconds

[@brendantjeerdsma492]

Holy fuck

[@jase6709]

Yeah, with a calculator and more time.

[@Ciofey]

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.

[@bowlchamps37]

Yes, that´s why he did not know how much 318 x 75 was, cause he did not need it.

[@ConfusedGeriatric]

That’s awesome… thank you for the breakdown

[@AceFurryTrash]

Exactly he didn't know the answer but knew what would happen after.

[@ericzubyk2329]

@@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.

[@Planetdune]

Tbh, it is not THAT impressive. Maybe it was decades ago in a game show though.

[@baileyhaddock4552]

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

[@thefrub]

Same here. One clip of Taskmaster gets featured on Reddit, and suddenly a bunch of us Americans get flooded with Channel 4 shows lol

[@tmfabrik3877]

Doctor Medkit or germans

[@adamchughtai593]

Yep same

[@alexpotts6520]

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.

[@icturner23]

Same for me too, except for the ones weirdly missing from All 4 with no explanation.

[@TheJohnCooper]

Rumour has it, he's still getting noshed off by all the grannies in the audience that day

[@dylanjakins4411]

John Cooper think they're dead mate

[@renhoek3851]

@Chris Landry fucking hell mate

[@totallybored5526]

There is a false teeth joke to be made but I’m in to much of a gross mood to make it myself.

[@stevethea5250]

@Chris Landry THESE 2 ARE SOAKING WET 3:55

[@RideBikes_Walkplaces]

Hahahahaha

[@conmak9208]

That he did that in 30 seconds, on TV, is insane, credit to him, that is brilliant

[@thenamen935]

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

[@vincenzofranchelli2201]

its not difficult, especially with practise as he knows that by doing (x*75-50)/25 he is basically doing x*3-2 still impressive to do it under pressure though

[@B1G_Dave]

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.

[@Smellmipoo4932]

Not only that, he made himself some cheese on toast just before the show which helped him concentrate.

[@lachlanhines7644]

@@Smellmipoo4932 don't forget how good he was at words either. TNETENNBA was such a good word!

[@DemonetisedZone]

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

[@beeble2003]

@@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.

[@andy16005343]

Could you use that in a sentence?@@lachlanhines7644

[@Busdriver10122]

I just love how much Carol is laughing and enjoying this

[@INeedANewHandle]

she was drunk

[@Busdriver10122]

@@INeedANewHandle Seems like it huh

[@neilhartley5372]

Sounded false to me ,think she was pissed off cos she didn't get there first

[@oktfg]

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.

[@Busdriver10122]

@@neilhartley5372 Think you might be right there

[@Jamonga100]

Yeah but can he do it on a cold tuesday night in Stoke?!

[@Stokie09123]

Jamonga100 Few can!

[@jasonprice719]

+Jamonga100 im from stoke too, weird init

[@SCFCSTOKE1]

Up the Potters..

[@MyselfTheThird]

Top bantz m8

[@krackajackz]

Jamonga100 can he do it in front of 50000 at wembley

[@jonmopjovi2734]

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

[@sheridan5175]

And a plunge into a flushing toilet from Chad

[@IAmTheStig32]

The real W is Carol calling you incredible

[@quaid667]

the things we take for granted.

[@liamgbooth]

He'd have taught Issac Newton before his demise.

[@Fatima502]

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.

[@canny_linguist]

Her reaction makes this all the more comical

[@testtubeaccident7805]

Mrs Vorderman to you.

[@lotuseater7247]

@@testtubeaccident7805 She's divorced

[@AlcatrazHR]

@@lotuseater7247 Who isn't divorced these days?

[@lotuseater7247]

@@AlcatrazHR me. The point was they said Mrs. Apparently she stated that she has a friend with benefits. Lucky guy.

[@lhfirex]

Legend has it that Jon Richardson keeps a copy of this video in his home in case he needs an emergency adrenaline shot.

[@markmeade2937]

He uses cocaine instead, and I think it shows

[@tommy2917]

What makes this great is that he didn't even mention how unorthodox his method was. He just came out with it casually.

[@Cola.Cube.]

There is nothing unorthodox about mathematics.

[@Cola.Cube.]

@Oliver McCall in your mind maybe.

[@Cola.Cube.]

@Oliver McCall I totally get your point. 👍

[@Cola.Cube.]

@Oliver McCall so addition, division, multiplication and subtraction are not normal😂😂😂😂

[@Cola.Cube.]

@Oliver McCall lol. That's true. Ya gotta miss Richard.

[@Mitjitsu]

I knew I shouldn't have skipped class that day when they were covering the 952 times table.

[@Jf_1900]

I knew I should stayed for the 30 times table, but it only went up to 951...

[@immortalsofar5314]

I learned how to cheat at tables tests as soon as it reached 7 so I guess I never reached 952.

[@britecho8353]

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.

[@lfcmonkeyyyman6229]

Correct

[@hillashfarm]

Carol's laugh is more funny than the outrageous sum, she has a good sense of humour.

[@glynwigley1581]

She has the dirtiest laugh since Sid James

[@nonamesinspace1291]

I agree she brings a good energy to the show

[@JD-re3cj]

Numbers are hysterical I agree

[@petermgruhn]

To me she comes across as a giggling fool. What humour is she sensing? I'm betting it's an act for telly.

[@hatorigirl1202]

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.

[@kroppyer]

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

[@Jonny0W]

+kroppyer Yes! Nicely explained

[@paul-petertheulings1276]

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.

[@isabellax9219]

😶

[@a1974h]

Tracie Irene you done well to explain it

[@richardignatowicz8900]

Cant believe he worked this out in thirty seconds. Amazing.

[@mikefuller6959]

There is always someone out there cleverer than yourself.

[@mikefuller6959]

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.

[@mikefuller6959]

Lol! Delusional mate!

[@mikefuller6959]

***** OK?!

[@Ryan-mh8xu]

more clever

[@TheGodParticle]

Probably not me but I'm content.

[@97channel]

"Yes, same way Richard. Yup.". [eats evidence to the contrary]

[@mtjoy747]

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!

[@alexf7377]

Except he won a teapot and not a million dollars. (Britain in a nutshell)

[@camerongray7767]

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

[@craigchristian344]

It's not an illusion mate

[@reasontolive6287]

Well done.

[@brainimp]

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.

[@dominicholland9591]

***** and no calculators.

[@kevinabalo]

Yeah and with that irritating music going on.

[@colinjava8447]

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.

[@Slimmeyy]

Well I got my 953 in 15 seconds without a calculator :P

[@error.418]

@@Slimmeyy Too bad that's not the goal number

[@BrettMKW]

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.

[@harryrambler]

+BrettMKW Yes impressive. Did you do that in 30 seconds?

[@BrettMKW]

***** 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.

[@harryrambler]

Very impressive! My friend Steve is like that. A human calculator.

[@BrettMKW]

***** 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.

[@harryrambler]

+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!

[@BoHista23]

I sometimes just return to this video because I really enjoy everyone's amazement at this guy's skills.

[@ElGibby]

Now THAT is the epitome of ‘method in the madness’. Brilliant 😁

[@musicsavage]

01:50 "And then dividing by something": pure definition of anxious waiting.

[@aaronsmyth7943]

Even I gave that guy a round of applause 25 years later.

[@Bydey]

Me too

[@FlowHD]

divide that by 25

[@misterkunnyfunt]

i love how when carol was asked to divide that she was just like "yea... ill take your word for it..."

[@MindstormXL]

I actually did the sequence on the calculator and it was correct.

[@Mitjitsu]

You only need to times the 238 bit by 4, which will give you 952.

[@Isleofskye]

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 !

[@RJSRdg]

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?"

[@petermgruhn]

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?

[@moonspell6759]

the american version of this game was cancelled in 17 minutes due to mass inability to think.

[@G.Aaron.Fisher]

Why is there so much unprovoked xenophobia on these British TV clips? Is that part of what they teach you on your little island?

[@haunter4708]

Why is there so much unprovoked bombing the shit out of things on everywhere?

[@nothanks1239]

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.

[@Mbeepyd]

+Aaron Fisher Hahahaa oh dear speak for yourselves

[@jordanturner163]

Moonspell67 haha

[@Millsyboy84]

Carol "you want to multiply by 75?" Maths genius" yes, that's exactly what we're doing" Carol: *throffing intensifies*

[@ColinRichardson]

Don't worry Carol, Rachel Riley is here to rescue you from doing your job.

[@FahadAyaz]

@@ColinRichardson Oof, too soon!

[@apnewens]

What’s throffing?

[@mickodillon1480]

@@apnewens I can just imagine Sir.

[@Edos512]

her face when he says.... "I'd like to multiply by 75" is priceless

[@ThatGuy-qp6dv]

I'm an intellectual because this was in my recommended. *updates CV

[@namanarora5168]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/mJnJYYuIoaqgmdk

[@MasterJammer]

LMAO

[@weaselmcweaselson1543]

carols reactions were hilarious. i was in stitches!! brilliant

[@pentagonanimates]

how does this comment not say “12 years ago” because HOW DOES THIS COMMENT NOT SAY “12 YEARS AGO-

[@goranmilic442]

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".

[@AD-cc7bj]

@@goranmilic442 jeez. where are you from?

[@craigwilliams9279]

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.

[@NathanielHarari]

I used to watch it as well when I lived in Belgium as a kid.

[@toptenguy1]

Same! It aired in Eastern Canada!

[@mitchweiner]

I love how Carol laughs in disbelief! 😀

[@eskimojoe365]

Been avoiding this video on my recommended for weeks, Finally decided to click on it and I'm not disappointed!! 😮

[@avitechandgaming8028]

Same mate!

[@Coldheart322]

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.

[@johnvonhorn2942]

Carol was pushed beyond her design specs and started to break up.

[@A-small-amount-of-peas]

I spilt my tea slightly watching this when it first aired. It really was that thrilling

[@hakkihantunbak6340]

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

[@Simon0]

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.

[@Slimmeyy]

@RonnyDonny13 Dude, same! And I know 0.5*0.5 is 1! Wait a minute...

[@SS-nx2xx]

Let me tell you gentlemen it's such an honour to be amongst such superior intellect

[@huntersmoon7201]

Hope to see you all winning the Math Olympiad gold medal one day. Don't tell me to not get my hopes up.

[@ChrisMac2489]

👏 that was (without A shadow of a doubt ) the most amazing numbers game I have ever seen in countdown

[@markinglese3874]

Wow! That was out of the box thinking. Awesome.

[@barrypuccini6142]

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.

[@ChromeXk]

Nice work James, Carol is now damp!

[@perudahudson7481]

lol quality lol

[@kumquatmagoo]

@Shaun Brennan still would

[@lichade2008]

She needed tampons that day

[@gatecrasherkz7]

*moist

[@zombi2896]

@@gatecrasherkz7 damp

[@plasticbudgie]

Rest in peace Richard whiteley, what a Gent

[@grahamlive]

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.

[@garrick3727]

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.

[@Gaur1983]

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.

[@alexpotts6520]

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.

[@davidraveh5966]

Lol most mathematicians can't add up a dartboard to save their life

[@NegativeAccelerate]

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.

[@xx765]

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.

[@beeble2003]

@@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.

[@DarthScosha]

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.

[@crzyprplmnky]

That's Numbawang!!

[@jimmysaville360]

lol

[@ErwinPommel]

Jimmy Saville, you should be ashamed of yourself, and the things you've done.

[@isaacbrown1594]

Forcing Google+ Makes Me Feel Better About the Spying lets rotate the board

[@samcoburn9527]

Number wank!

[@AnAverageArceus]

@@samcoburn9527 it's NumberWANG!

[@sphinxtheeminx]

Nice to see old Twice Nightly's smiley face once more. A legend, taken far too soon.

[@CountryHouseGent]

Anyone notice, no whooping from the audience. Ah, those were the days.

[@hadawaco]

I agree whooping should be banned in live audiences.

[@icedbannanas]

one step further, just ban live audiences. awful things.

[@lancemannly]

Y'all some fun hating miserable bastards

[@icedbannanas]

Don't talk too loudly or CountryHouseGent will ban you too!

[@davidoftheglen3447]

All the whooping is just another example of England being Americanised .

[@corsothewolf8911]

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.

[@phillipphillippson8456]

I loved watching Countdown after school back in the late 90’s

[@merlinsdog4530]

The way some people can think always amazes me. 30 seconds to work that out. Incredible!

[@QuantumOverlord]

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.

[@chrisoconnor7126]

Why u all talking about 954??? They looking for 952 ya tool

[@mtiller2006]

...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!

[@shaney54st]

Sheldon later went to star in the sitcom 'the Big Bang theory'

[@N.Shenavar]

Excellent! Lovely 50 subtraction in the middle is absolutely hilarious!

[@JYC422]

add all the numbers together and reverse the order

[@CoffeePoints]

+JYC422 I assume you can only use each number once

[@Sonfil]

+JYC422 and ?

[@moniammouri7667]

+TheMightyWill 25+50+75+100+6+3 = 259, this number backwards is 952, that's what he meant

[@CoffeePoints]

Mone Ammouri ooh right. Okay thanks for clearing that up!

[@mrsparkaru6887]

That's actually quite impressive!

[@RebelRadius]

WOW, I don't think I have ever seen Carol flumoxed. She is a walking calculator. I miss the duo :)

[@Rikk303]

flummoxed I think

[@RebelRadius]

Rikk303 LOL, nicely spotted :)

[@Stantheman848]

she can only do basic arithmetic in her head.... nothing special.

[@JesusIsLord105]

I can do it easier. Turn the '6' over for the '9', take the 25 and turn it around for 52. 952. boom im a genius.

[@kingemocut]

you gotta work with the numbers you have, flipping them over isn't allowed.

[@JesusIsLord105]

kingemocut I know.....I was joking

[@kingemocut]

fair enough.

[@JesusIsLord105]

***** lol life is worth living thanks to youtube right? :)

[@brakosjacob8019]

I think you're looking for 8 out of 10 cats does countdown. :)

[@Zauchi]

I love it how the guy doesn't seem confident in answering but actually has the correct answer. lol

[@EmperorsNewWardrobe]

“100 plus 6 then times by 75” “By 75? Are you sure?” “Yes, just do it carol” “Ok, that’s 23,850” “Now times by 50 plus 3” “What??” “Just fucking do it carol” “And now divide that by 25” “Really???” “I said do it because I say so” “Ok ... and you’re miles off” “I guess I am, but I’d like a little less reluctance next time”

[@joshuaizly5502]

106 times 75 is not 23,850 tho

[@EmperorsNewWardrobe]

@@joshuaizly5502 yes it bloody well is. Show me your workings

[@snifferrr]

@@EmperorsNewWardrobe 7950

[@arcadiousgames]

It's a very clever approach. By picking the 4 big numbers that you know are 25, 50, 75, 100, you can ensure that you have the numbers 2, 3 and 4 at your disposal. Then you have the ability to quickly "double up" numbers to get to your target, then quickly simplifying (as mentioned in the below comment). Every pro should be picking the big 4 !

[@Nullifidian]

I think they should too, because it's less likely to lead to solutions where no points are achievable. In six-small games, which seems to be everyone's "difficult" go-to, it leads to impossible games 2% of the time. It sounds like a small percentage, but you have to contextualize it against the other possibilities where you're dealing with 0.1% or 0.2% of numbers and target combinations yielding impossible games. Four-large games are only impossible 0.2% of the time. In 99.8% of them, you can score at least 5 points. Also, you're more likely to have a perfect game with four-large. With six-small, only 83.88% of games can be solved perfectly, but that number rises to 90.46% with the four-large. Finally, there is nothing truly difficult about the six-small games. As long as you've mastered the technique of factoring, you can solve almost every game that is solvable. Most contestants don't bother to factor the target numbers, admittedly, but still that's a shaky thing to rely on, particularly if you want to go to the series championships and hold your own with the strongest players. Four-large games also often require factoring the number, but there are techniques unique to the four-large games you don't get in other number selections, like the 937.5 rule, the fact that the ratios between the four large numbers are fixed, so you can have uneven ratios like 4:3 or 3:2, and you have unique ways of making necessary numbers. An opponent would have to master all these techniques _and_ factoring as well to meet you on an equal footing in a four-large game.

[@numera8892]

To be honest it’s not hard to see what he’s done without actually having to know the value of 318 x 75: He saw that 318 x 3 = 954. What he needed was a way to multiply by 3 and subtract 2. 75/25 = 3. He has no way of getting a 2 to work with at this stage so he had the ingenious idea of subtracting 50 first, and since 50/25 = 2, it would have the overall effect of taking 2 from the final answer to get 952. Like this: (3-8 x 75 - 50)1/25 = (318 x 3 - 2) = 952. Not so bad. Beautiful though.

[@alfonsstekebrugge8049]

This seems very likely indeed given the way it played out. Takes a very agile mind to see this in half a minute. Like most people I'd wager I got to 953 doing the simple stuff.

[@jonjones1553]

Numera In 30 seconds.

[@kidneystone53]

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

[@healthiswealth8153]

it's not as difficult to understand as you think...e.g. say you need 490, and the numbers available are 100, 2, and 5. Take 100 then minus 2 (98) multiply by 5 to get 490. By using minus 2 and multiplying by 5 to begin with you take 10 away at the end.. same principle bigger scale lol you don't always need to know all of the equation to get the answer despite what they teach in school. They never teach you that dividing by 100 and multiplying by 4 is exactly the same as dividing by 25 which is sometimes easier and what he did at the end. You can do this with many different variations of any numbers. In the real world there is no such thing as cheating when it comes to getting the right answer. I used to hate maths because of the way i was taught, now i love numbers!

[@healthiswealth8153]

@@kidneystone53 yep you probably are boring!

[@EbonyRager]

This clip lives in my head rent free 😩

[@thenirvanafan7895]

Am I the only one thinks if there's no 100 up there, it's too hard to bother with hahaha

[@PeteMcDonald]

I swear mate, best comment I've EVER read on youtube hahahaha

[@Slimmeyy]

I got 953 without using the 100 or the 75.

[@Aw3som3-117]

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".

[@andysitton1703]

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.

[@sonoslain69]

When he said x75 it made sense. That's why he didn't know how much 75x318 was ... HE DIDN'T HAVE TO KNOW THAT !!! 318x3 would be 954 so... Using the -50 to get -2 when he divided it by 25 again....BRILLIANT! It was all about the -2.

[@L-MAdv]

I’m wondering if anyone has a clip of the numbers game where the target is 400 and 2 of the chosen numbers were 100 and 4 (I can’t remember what the other 4 numbers were)? The funny thing about that part of that particular episode was that Carol Vorderman, at one point during the 30 second countdown, she is seen waving in the bottom left corner of the screen. Then about 10 or so seconds later, she holds up a board where she has written “It’s pathetic, isn’t it?”. I’d love to see that moment again 😂

[@danzmodz6824]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/g5bPcqqZn92Aq8k might help u find it

[@dannycolverson6944]

I remember watching this live. Was pretty mental. Well, as mental as Countdown ever got. Digestive buscuit, cup of tea...Good times. Cant watch it now. The 30 minute show with Carol, Richard and limited "dictionary corner" time was the best.

[@scintillatingskills5082]

Who's in it now?

[@Nullifidian]

@@scintillatingskills5082 Nick Hewer is the current host, but he's announced his intention of stepping down after the current season (and he's already had to turn some episodes over to Colin Murray during the COVID lockdowns), and Rachel Riley is the arithmetician. Susie Dent, who is in this video, went from being a member of a rotating group of lexicographers to being the sole lexicographer for all episodes in 2003.

[@scintillatingskills5082]

@@Nullifidian He was on the Apprentice right?

[@Nullifidian]

@@scintillatingskills5082 Nick Hewer? Yes.

[@danstylus1]

Because x75 ÷25 would be x3 but x75 -50 ÷25 would be x3 -2 just brilliant!!

[@gicking3898]

My God Susie looks so young! I mean she's still lively in 2020, but... So young! 🥰

[@stellaartois303]

That’s not susie....

[@gligeti]

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.

[@Exevium]

Actually really impressive. Cleverly multiplying by 3 and subtracting 2.

[@jamesb821]

I always wondered if Carol ever used to sniff the pens.

[@swavnasahoo711]

xD whys that? markers do smell some kinda way or does it have soemthing to do with acting high? haha. idk.

[@kerrytaylor1795]

She was fired from this show for being too drinky, is what I heard.

[@RAMSEY1987]

This passes as a game show in Britain what an odd amazing bunch

[@tehf00n]

+logical fruit well it's hard to find people with skills where you come from in

[@SocietyIsCollapsing]

+logical fruit Agreed, it's better just to guess the price of random shit; that takes far more brain power.

[@JackHundley]

+logical fruit Be fair to us Brits, there's two rounds of letters for each numbers round! We British have loads of other great shows you might like. There's 'Just A Minute' Where contestants have to talk about a given topic for 60 seconds without hesitation, repetition or deviation. Perhaps 'The News Quiz' will take your fancy, where contestants answer questions relating to the news of the past week. Finally there's 'Pointless' where contestants have to guess things about a subject that nobody else did. You can ridicule any gameshow really, but all of these sound much more appealing then spinning a big wheel or playing around with some oversized cards.

[@RAMSEY1987]

I am not complaining I think its great

[@johnlewis9158]

i think he was giving the program a complement a backhanded one but a complement nevertheless

[@BudKingUK]

Imagine this cropping up on 8 out of 10 cats do countdown 😂

[@zach.]

75 * 6 = 450 450 / 50 = 9 100 + 3 = 103 103 * 9 = 927 927 + 25 = 952 easier

[@Treviscoe]

Good one! Well done there.

[@TheCinemaNut]

easier..but not as entertaining. ;)

[@DDnufcGamer]

His was way more impressive. He even had the math 'genius' confused

[@ppeter1982]

Did you get that in 30 seconds?

[@therrsysappreciationchanne9625]

Zach Zurawski [75 x 6] x [100+3] / 50 + 25

[@schmetterlingsjaeger]

This should be used in math classes to teach the power of the distributive law!

[@WaterCrane]

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)

[@wjestick]

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.

[@afgnnzw]

I feel like you're breaking some very important math rules with this abomination

[@khonhlo1476]

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.

[@khonhlo1476]

***** 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

[@Enleuk]

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.

[@tommy5675]

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.

[@jaker3151]

The clip kind of looks older than 1997. Didn't realise Susie Dent has been on the show for so long. She has aged quite well and her demeanor seems unchanged.

[@francofan100]

It’s 1997. Carol is heavily pregnant with her second child Cameron.