Words vs. Numbers...BAR FIGHT!

Can you beat the cosmic number and crossword puzzle?
Visit www.Domain.com and use promo code SCAMSCHOOL for 15% off at checkout!
For more Scam School, find Brian in all these social media places:
/ scamschool
/ shwood
/ shwood
google.com/+shwood
This episode of Scam School was made by these stellar individuals:
Brian Brushwood
Jon Tilton
Brandt Hughes
Bryce Castillo
Roberto Villegas
Shot on location at Moontower Saloon in Austin, TX

[@hannamaye8871]

I got the first one within ten seconds. Proudest accomplishment ever

[@MeandmagiC]

Hanna Maye The video title spoiled it

[@bluemonkey1013]

Hanna Maye same

[@anotidachitando9220]

Hanna Maye I got it straight away

[@Vaeza822]

I got this because of standupmaths

[@micahphilson]

Anyone who didn't know these puzzles never got bored at a camp. These and so many more are extremely common and popular. Green Glass Door, What can I put in my truck?, the stick number game...

[@deyvplays]

With the second one, you could actually phrase it something like "You need to fit ten of these six words into this 4x4 grid," since each horizontal word is also a vertical word.

[@brunokabbaz5779]

YEEEEES, I think you're making me smarter Brian, thanks for that! I'm starting to get scam school puzzles before the answer!!!!

[@snowthemegaabsol6819]

Oh my god you know about the cosmic number!!! I've never met anyone else in my life that did! Up top, brother!

[@WalterKingstone]

YES! I worked it out! The number of letters in each number is the next number! And because four is the only number that has that many letters, 4 is the cosmic number.

[@NurzwanzigBuchstaben]

Walter Kingstone is 4 really the only number ....

[@WalterKingstone]

NurzwanzigBuchstaben yes... 4 is the only number that has as many letters as the number is.

[@breathless792]

Walter Kingstone what about "the only two digit perfect number" which has 28 letters and that sentence refers to 28 PS I know what you mean:D

[@antivanti]

breathless792 Nice try but it doesn't stop at 28. Twenty-eight has eleven letters and eleven has six letters and six has three letters and three has five letters and five has four letters and four is the cosmic number. You still end up at four, man =)

[@breathless792]

Anders Öhlund you misunderstood what I said, I wasn't talking about the game itself (where the rule is to take the number of letters in the word) I was responding to the clam that 4 is the only number with the property that it has the same number of letters as its value, and yes if you only consider the word representing the number that is correct (that's why I said "PS I know what you mean) I meant if extend it to include statements about numbers there are more numbers with the property of number of letters equals value, 28 is the only two digit perfect number (I didn't mean you could use that in the game)

[@Mr011i3]

Just done an all-nighter, doing a load of uni work, finally finish and get to watch Scam School long but worth it day

[@scamschool]

Mr011i3 congrats, man. Keep kicking ass.

[@MattMcConaha]

The second one was ridiculously easy. DAFT and LEAF are the only two with an F, so DAFT obviously has to be on an edge and LEAF just fits into that. From there, you just fill in the blanks. The only "trick" is that DEED and BRAT are diagonal, but I didn't even worry about that while doing it, it just did itself. I didn't even worry about spelling things twice, either, that just happened on its own. It must have been infinitely harder to make than to solve.

[@chinchilla_fandoms9500]

I've actually pulled the 'cosmic number' stunt on my classmate, but I just told her that every word goes to four and challenged her to find a word that didn't

[@cjcassar2196]

It's the number of letters. Brian, do you owe me a beer?

[@ejgoldlust]

The first one snapped into my head quickly, not sure why. Maybe the title, or maybe that I'd seen something like it before. Or it could be Genius. Yeah, that's probably it. The second one had me thinking there was a real trick, because I quickly worked out that there wasn't a way to put those words in the grid uniquely. (Plus, you gave us only six words, where I should have expected eight.) For instance, only LEAF and DAFT have an F, so the only place to put LEAF is in the third row (could choose column instead, but it doesn't change anything)and then DAFT has to go in the last column. The only weird ending in A is AREA so that had to go in:/ the second row now. And that means... We're screwed for the rest of the columns. Where did we go wrong? We didn't, of course. Genius, remember? We CAN put words in the other columns... But we have to start reusing them. Then it becomes apparent that we have a symmetric grid of BALD, AREA, LEAF, DAFT. and the remaining words magically appear in the diagonals, which answers the question of where the "trick" is. Nice try, Brushwood. Nice try.

[@scamschool]

Eric Goldlust I'LL GET YOU NEXT TIME, ERIC! **shakes fist**

[@kicky77]

Same for me man, I think the title gave it away for me somehow

[@antivanti]

Eric Goldlust Same here. We're probably geniuses. Yeah that's it. That title hint theory is totally bogus for sure! =P

[@jacobmartin5593]

I fucking love four is cosmic. When I worked at a summer camp as a counselor I played this game with the kid and loved watching their brains melt from trying to figure out what the rule are

[@diegorojaslaluz962]

I solve the first inmediatly, when he says 3->5->4, and i solve the second in 30 seconds

[@jeffreydonadio2081]

Before watching the hint, my guess for the first puzzle is, you count how many letters are in the first number mentioned, then you count the number of letters in each following numbers until you get to 4, the cosmic number. The second puzzle is... "BALD" "AREA" "LEAF" "DAFT" with BRAT and DEED shown as diagonals. That's my story, and I'm sticking to it.

[@Manachtron]

I have to say those ads are sooo funny!

[@10farticus]

Finally brushwood you have found a puzzle i can actually do. Solved the grid

[@skeetersorenson4909]

I remember when I first encountered the cosmic puzzle. I figured that one out, but failed another puzzle called, "The Pink Elephants."

[@NunoVippan]

I actually solved the word grid - this very easy and there is also another hint that makes it (at least for me) even more easy... Seeing the letter F coming up only twice - in leaF and daFt - I figured - let's just put daft in the bottom row and then leaf vertically downwards in the third column of the grid (that's the only way to use the F, is it). In that case - you have a T in the bottom right corner of the grid and the only word ending in a t is brat - so it must go diagonally as it also turned out in your hint! And likewise - if you set brat in the top row - you'll end up having the same thing, only brat goes diagonally from left to right though the other diagonal of the grid (basically the same as if you rotated the grid 90 deg. counterclockwise).

[@Tahlorn]

The second one; If you see the word "DEED", it has a 'D' at the end and beginning. "DAFT" has to connect to one side, "BALD" to the other, as there are no more 'D' words left. This means "DEED" has to be on a diagonal. Try the top left corner down, words don't fit. But up from bottom left and it works great!

[@krotenschemel8558]

I think the Word puzzle was preatty easy. Upon first glance, you see the Word DEED has two letters E following each other, while all other words, save for BRAT have Es in second or third position. This is information enough to know that DEEP has to go diagonal. Now BRAT is the only word without E in it, so it has to avoid the Es in the middle, which is only possible by making it also diagonal.

[@mrmann673]

Been subscribed to Scam School for a long time that I figured everything out when the lady chose Ten.

[@TheDonteras]

I tried to use the "four is the cosmic number" puzzle at the bar, but when I said, "Give me any number and I can tell you how it converts," someone ask about 2,383. It's the number of delegates that Hillary was supposed to get (and didn't) in order to win the primaries. It took me a while, but I figured it out to be 34 (you don't count spaces, right?), 34 is 10, 10 is 3, 3 is 5, 5 is 4, and 4 is the cosmic number. bleh....

[@gamefreakfail]

The hint and him saying syllables gave me it

[@sn1krep1]

Brian Brushwood that Real Genius reference in the intro was great! Such nostalgia!!

[@scamschool]

Sn1krep1 :-)

[@user-kg2td5bq2t]

Scam School Scam School Cool! i got the 1st one with the hint and the 2nd without :D

[@Elanchana]

I read an interesting version of this one in a puzzle book. A guy is spying on a secret society with an outside guard. One member approaches the guard, who says "twelve". The member says "six" and the guard lets him in. A while later, another member approaches the guard, who says "six". The member says "three" and the guard lets him in. The spy thinks he's figured out the code and approaches the guard himself. The guard says "eight" and the spy replies with "four". The guard throws him out. The hint they gave was also interesting: It works in other languages. The answer to "otto" would be "quattro" and the answer to "sechzehn" would be "acht". Also fun fact: I originally thought I found a DIFFERENT answer to the word puzzle by spelling things backwards instead of using diagonals but then I realized that I had "blad" instead of "bald". Whoops.

[@pizzadoodles12345]

Hey Brian, just thought you should know their is no "c" in shwood

[@scamschool]

pizzadoodles12345 oh, shit! Good point.

[@gediminasusevicius2668]

The first was done easily just by noticing that ten is three. The second one was harder. Firstly, checked where the word 'deed' can fit and managed to prove that it must be written diagonally (probably I spelled it wrong :) ) and than everything fitted well. Thanks more awesome video

[@BunniBuu]

Second one I got but I didn't know if I was right since nothing was said about going backwards, so I thought I was wrong >.> pretty simple little puzzles :) Keep up the good work

[@wrothmonk]

The second one was fairly easy to figure out. I figured that since none of the words started with A or ended with A besides area that it must be in the middle somewhere and couldn't be diagonal. After you figure out one word, everything falls into place.

[@JoshLathamTutorials]

When he told them what 10 was, it gave it away for me.

[@acediamond5399]

Pausing at 1:35 to say... This one is easy for me, personally. It's a function f(n) = {number of letters in the verbal name of n}. I recognized it immediately because I did a lot of work in this particular subject last year. I'll provide some of the most interesting things I found... First, I tried to find the smallest nonnegative integers that can be recursively put through the function f(n) j times before repeating, for j = 1, 2, 3, ... . In other words, 10 -> 3 -> 5 -> 4, and then gets stuck at 4, so 10 can be put through the function f(n) 3 times before repeating. So what I found is, the smallest nonnegative integers that goes through EXACTLY j times before repeating are as follows... j=0: 4 j=1: 5 j=2: 3 j=3: 1 j=4: 11 j=5: 23 j=6: 323 j=7: 1,103,323,373,373,373,373,373,373,373,373 So the 7th entry is one nonillion, one hundred three octillion, three hundred twenty-three septillion, three hundred seventy-three sextillion, three hundred seventy-three quintillion, three hundred seventy-three quadrillion, three hundred seventy-three trillion, three hundred seventy-three billion, three hundred seventy-three million, three hundred seventy-three thousand, three hundred seventy-three, which has 323 letters -> three hundred twenty-three, which has 23 letters -> twenty-three, which has 11 letters -> eleven, which has 6 letters -> six, which has 3 letters -> three, which has 5 letters -> five, which has 4 letters. For j=8, I can't even begin to state what that number would be, but I can say this: If you had 1,000,000 planets, each with an equal population to Earth's, all the people on all those planets working collectively would need over 100,000 years just to say or write it. An interesting tangent that this led me on was the problem of trying to find a sentence which documents the lengths of all of its own words. I decided to go with the simple form "This sentence contains {quantity} {length}-letter word(s), {quantity} {length}-letter word(s), ... {quantity} {length}-letter word(s), and {quantity} {length}-letter word(s)." I worked out what things must be true, and eventually I came to the end where, miraculously, the final word fit right into place. It was a fucking magical moment, let me tell you. Think about it... every time you add or change a word, you're probably changing the quantity of at least one particular length, which then means that length's quantity is changed, and on and on and on... So, it seems it was fate that the pieces fell into place so perfectly. Without further ado, here is the sentence: "This sentence contains six three-letter words, three four-letter words, nine five-letter words, two eight-letter words, one nine-letter word, three ten-letter words, two eleven-letter words, and two twelve-letter words." (Note: A hyphenated word is a single word.)

[@acediamond5399]

Ace Diamond (And, on the last thing, I believe I have proven that this is the only sentence of this precise form that works.)

[@raymondfaf1054]

Spoilers, Observations and Compliments for Brian's hair below! Hi Brian, while I was doing the words puzzle, I realized that the middle of all of the six words had E's in the middle 2 columns. This led me to realize that the middle of the words, RE (From Area), EA (From Leaf), EE (From Deed), and RA (From Brat), meant that the two E's were diagonal to each other. In addition, RE, EA, and RA led me to believe that the two E's were in the corner of the 2x2 in the middle since that E is in the end of RE and in the beginning of EA. I then concluded that RA, diagonal to each other (inferred from the explanation above) was part of the word BRAT. Then, the word DEED was easy to see with the diagonal E's. That's basically my logical way of doing it, and by the way, Brian's hair is cool.

[@Zark-Muckerberg]

***** Ya gotta admit his spikes were cooler though bruh!

[@acediamond5399]

***** Good logic, and hilarious comment xD

[@johnjackson478]

I got them both after u gave me the hint. Thanks, keep up the puzzles

[@benjaminearl5595]

Figured the second puzzle out before the hint.

[@billbillings913]

Hey Brian awesome "Real Genius" reference! One of the best movies of the 80's. I probably saw it hundreds of times on HBO when I was a teenager :)

[@scamschool]

bill billings same here!

[@joshcarson9919]

Hmmm, dangerous first riddile, because I automatically thought of a gigantic number when he said "I'll answer what each number is. You give me a number and I'll tell you what it leads to." It's rather difficult to think of how many letters "Forty-thousand nine-hundred and eighty-seven" has in your head in mid-air...

[@sklt00n]

first i thinked long and hard, then i remembered the title "word" vs. numbers, then eureka :) finally a puzzle that I solved on my own

[@TheY2AProblem]

Why do I have the feeling that those sun bleached sodas have been sitting there since the Carter Administration?

[@Sam_on_YouTube]

Solved both in my head within seconds. In fairness, I've seen plenty of versions of the first one. I wasn't sure I'd get the second without paper, but I looked at the two with a letter "F" and decided where to link them up and everything else feel into place instantly without even writing it down.

[@vgmaster02]

Ok. Seven years in the future. What does 7,777,777 lead to? XD

[@Sam_on_YouTube]

​@@vgmaster02 A lot. I watched the video up to 1:16 to refresh my memory of the puzzle. And immediately decided I'm not counting all of that.

[@vgmaster02]

@@Sam_on_KZbin I beat the scam!! XDD Now I'm gonna enjoy a cider flavored donut x3

[@Sam_on_YouTube]

@@vgmaster02 Congrats. It's a pretty well known one, but not so well known that you won't still get most people thinking for a while.

[@spicytrashpanda]

Got them both. Second one almost tripped me up when I started seeing it become a pattern

[@jasoncormier8008]

To make things more complicated use the words: Leaf, Bald, Oreo, Lean, Daft, Deed, Brat, Bold, Area, Dont.... Reply with the answer.

[@KTC88]

For the first time ever, I actually won the challenge before he revealed his answer!

[@tbksrk9954]

I learnt the first one from a book called 'Numbers are Forever'....you guys should check it out, its full of puzzles

[@kiddor3]

Those examples were not enough.I guess another solution - needed what was wrought. Otherwise, I was thinking letter count is obvious or (a single digit multiple of 4) 1+3 = 4, 3+5 = 8, 9+4 = 13 => 1+3 = 4, 10 =>1 + 0 = 1 + 3 = 4, 20 => 2 + 6 = 8. It's not perfect, but possible from the numbers unless the sequence from 8 - 5 - 4 is given our something else like 13. I know i know it's dumb, but it's possible. Again for the letter one - you need to tell they can't be upside down. Or else: BALD DEED BRAT DAFT Had area in the 2nd column upside down and least in the third column. Just saying... :)

[@InItForTheParking]

Knowing the title of the video the first one was easy but had I not known I probably would have been stumped. The second one was easy though as I saw BRAT and realized it couldn't go across or down without throwing the whole puzzle off.

[@loukasarts7367]

so i tried the word trick and my poor hand writing made my friend think daft was actually raft, he got mad at me for 'changing a word' and made me get HIM a beer!

[@AdamHicks20]

A Real Genius reference? Nice.

[@dyseskytten1]

The second puzzle is very easy. BRAT and DEED HAS to be diagonals because no word starts with R and no word ends with E.

[@durferz]

Doctor Brian Brushwood, we seem to have a case of death by overwhelming awesomeness... What should we do?

[@scamschool]

durferz more cowbell, naturally.

[@christophereleazar8646]

The ad is Hilarious.. GG WP 😂

[@scamschool]

Christopher Tan glad you liked it!!

[@acediamond5399]

I got the word problem correct, but I left four of the edge spaces empty rather than duplicating the words 'area' and 'leaf.' along both axes.

[@dcheverie]

I did the word one in about 5 seconds. It was upside down of yours, but still worked. I guess my brain is backwards. lol

[@waffelzoplenty1893]

I heard this from a friend before. He got some others around and no one came up with the answer until an hour later. lol

[@jamescoopertumulak6582]

I'm ganno impress my friends! THIS IS JAMES COOPER TUMULAK anyway!

[@justinmercado8795]

Correct me if im wrong, but Since you only have to fit the six words with the given space. I believe you can also solve puzzle two by doing the following. Line 1 is bald. Line 2 is empty r e empty. Line 3 is empty e a empty and line 4 is daft.

[@BryceCastillo]

Justin Mercado You gotta fill the board--no empty spaces!

[@russellsnook-whitfield3971]

Brian, I finished the word crossword with 4 empty spaces. I feel like this is something you should see.

[@Prs722]

I got the same that you got or somthing similar DAFT EA RE BALD

[@antivanti]

I figured this one out on the very first sequence. I suspect this is one of those that either clicks right away or spend hours on =)

[@BunniBuu]

First one pretty easy. Number of letters in the number = what it leads to. Now to watch the rest of it to see that confirmed and to watch the next one :D

[@michoacan9876543210]

Aye! Finally my first time to solve a puzzle on this show.(The 4x4 grid) Surprisingly i only had to erase one word and was able to complete it. Btw once i had bald on the top row and wrote brat diagonal the puzzle made sense to me.

[@michaels4340]

Already knew the first one. Second one was pretty easy... I get (SPOILERS) BALD AREA LEAF DAFT Where bald, area, leaf, and daft appear twice, BRAT appears once (on the diagonal) and DEED appears once/twice depending on whether you count reading it each direction down the diagonal as two appearances or one.

[@Victoria-nq2ur]

30 is 6, 6 is 3, 3 is 5, 5 is 4 and 4 is the cosmic number!

[@svHannibal]

Wow, a Real Genius quote!

[@NedalHanna]

I would like to see major battery improvements and also some sort of multitasking

[@PROJECTMartin]

Oh I know this one, it's just the amount of letters in the number

[@MisterLazila1]

Haha, I did the second puzzle in my head while watching, simply Deed in diagonally cause then you can add lEaf and arEa, balD at the bottom and Daft at the top, at it magically made Brat in reverse diagonal. I feel so awesome with myself :D

[@GamerIinc]

2 minutes into the video and I figured it out. Great Video!

[@gwkowe]

That number one I got right away, it was too similar to the password riddle one I know.

[@SoltariNagumoto]

So I solved the second one differently. Wish I could say I came up with the answer given on the show as it's a far more elegant solution. Mine's sloppy but it gets the job done. I would say maybe specify that every four in a row has to be a word but I feel like that's a big clue to the solution you gave... |B|A|L|D| |D|E|E|D| |B|R|A|T| |D|A|F|T|

[@MichaelBonaccorso]

don't mean to brag, but I used to do the first trick with my friends all the time, so I already knew how to do it. Its just the funniest thing when you see someone doing math when it does not even involve math!!! But that second one, that second one got me. Also, I was wondering if you were that really awesome guy from "Hacking The System"?

[@Medquill]

The key is finding the uncommon letters. once you identify them it takes two minutes or less to fill in the blanks.

[@Medquill]

Also, reminding myself to keep it simple made the first puzzle easy...

[@mrnicebobby]

I've been watching Scam School for far too long, Second one took me a little but of time, but I got'em both. :(

[@raiden-3251]

I finally figure out one of these impossible puzzles and the first one is letters in word

[@Dudebug2000]

..... Can I have the soda?

[@footballfan763]

I swear I didn't watch ahead and I think the answer to the first puzzle is that the next number will be how many letters were in the previous one because it is working for every single one. I am going to see if I am right now.

[@fakjbf3129]

I figured out the first one before he even got to the second example. And I got the second one on my second try, though I'm not sure it counts since I had to spell LEAF backwards to make it work.

[@timharig]

I saw the first one immediately, but I am pretty sure that I saw Matt Parker investigate this on numberfile or standupmaths.

[@odioaleman]

Second one, realy esay with last and first word. So deed is followed by dlab (blad) follow by brat follow by (tafd) and deed again. Only left area and left wich e in 2nd and 3rd postion, looks like deed in a diagonal, so then you put dlab (blad) on a line or column, brat can only go in a diagonal, then tfad(daft) joins in a column or a line with deed and you just fill area and the oposite column or line of daft with whatever you like.

[@devinhaggitt9408]

My solution for the last one: D A F T B R A T D E E D B A L D

[@ravemasterdbzwwe]

By the way, still blowing minds with doodle. You should review/do more apps!

[@happychaosofthenorth]

For once I got both puzzles easily first try! I feel so special.

[@jackmcbride7104]

Paused at 2:16 the answer has to be the number of letters in the word of each number correct? 7-5-4 for example seven has five letters five has four let’s four is the cosmic number ... I haven’t been so happy to solve a scam nation puzzle since Peddles around the rose 😂

[@Robert98okay14]

That first one is very similar too petals on the rose i solved that one but i couldnt get this one. Got me thise time shwood.

[@EvilNyanGrunt]

I think it's the number of letters that determines the next number

[@SoulSurvivorX2]

That's some cool tricks :)

[@flaaaaaaaaarps]

My friend asked what sqrt(-22), graham's number, and various other angering numbers for this trick.

[@prismglider5922]

I figured the first one out pretty quickly, just number of letters. Other one I couldn't figure out though.

[@williamroe8905]

It is the letters in the number!

[@shadowpledge9515]

ok so i paused for the word callenged and i believe i made it harder, i can fit the words: Area, Leaf, Deed, Brat, Bald, Daft, Bred and Teal

[@ayellowfinger132]

When i solved the second one, I wrote DEED first and went from there! I feel awesome!

[@codyburgett7962]

I think I got it before he gave the hint it's the number of letters in the number TEN goes to THREE which goes to FIVE which goes to FOUR and that's why Brian said NINE goes straight to FOUR which also only has FOUR letters so would go 4,4,4,4,... To the end of the universe IE "the cosmic number"

[@MrGameAndToy]

Already knew the cosmic number puzzle, I screw over my friends with it all the time. I call it the magic number though

[@jasonrainforth5652]

2:07 "20 goes to 6 cause it's a multiple of 4" the fuck 6 isn't a multiple of 4

[@Zwijger]

Twenty is a multiple of four though, I don't know where that would get him to six, but what he said was not incorrect.

[@dimosmonkey]

I found the second puzzle pretty easy but i did not use brat as the first word but deed...if you notice the word deed is also diagnoly so my grin was right but alomost the opposite of the answer the came out

[@shadowwalker2313]

Nice ! Please tell me how do you style your hair :)

[@swaguilar_]

I can never solve these puzzles.. probably because it's on Scam School! I should have known. -_-

[@jonjoni2811]

The cosmic number took me like 20 seconds to solve... The word one is tricky though because you need to use the same word twice, which really threw me off.

[@TheDonteras]

I totally failed the second puzzle. I thought it would involve writing the words crookedly.

[@RoderickEtheria]

Added Bold, Trod, Lear, and Oreo. BALD OREO LEAR DAFT I worked from the connection between LEAF and DAFT.

[@evagervais3895]

woohoo, i feel so good when i get the puzzle on my own lol

[@gkeller1031]

I figured the word puzzle out on my second try after pausing at 5:03.